The Generational Purge
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1353 through 1448 (alternating days): The Doctor and Rose help Jack in a situation with an old friend of his and a prison warden meddling in time; meanwhile, now Artie has Puck to help him uncover the secrets of the so-called substitute teacher. - Sequel to "Salvage", #4 in the series
1. A Story That Needs Telling

_A/N: This is the fourth story in the series (1. You'll Find Wonder. 2. Padra's Run. 3. Salvage) Also to any newbies, you don't need to know too much about either show to be able to follow, but if there's anything you're uncertain on, don't hesitate to message me, I'll be glad to help!_

* * *

**"The Generational Purge"  
Doctor Who/Glee crossover #4  
[DW] 9th Doctor, Rose, Jack - [Glee] Puck, Artie, & New Directions**

**1. A Story That Needs Telling**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Gemma had started to get fed up with the boxes of books. She'd had half a mind to invest in some bookshelves, for however long she would be here, but then what was the point, really? She had no idea exactly how long she would be there and, when it was all over, she would be leaving this place and these books, so what would happen to the shelves? Instead, she had stacked the boxes in the corner, which made things slightly complicated when she had something she was looking for. The boxes had started to become like background furniture.

And there was only so much reading a girl could do before she started to go cross-eyed and seeking to live adventures, not just read about them.

With how long she'd had to wait between her first and second posting, she knew it was possible she'd have to spend as many weeks waiting as she'd done before, so she did try to pace herself. Sometimes she would put the books aside and take on the somewhat foolish endeavor of song writing. She didn't think anything she put to paper was any good. She had been known to write the odd short story or two in her life, and she wouldn't appraise her own worth there, but she did think she had some talent there. Song writing was a whole other beast, and she had not yet managed to tame it. She kept telling herself she was trying too hard.

She really needed to get out of this apartment.

When her phone rang, she almost pounced on it like a cat. It could have been a disappointment, telemarketers or someone trying to get her to upgrade her phone. _I have the ultimate upgrade, buddy. I'd like to see your phone call across time and space._ But it wasn't disappointment, no. Gemma, or at least Ginny Harrison, was returning to McKinley High.

X

_One month earlier - January 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Before they had joined Glee Club, Artie would never have imagined himself to have anything in common with Noah Puckerman. The guy was a jock, a bully, and he had a knack for tossing slushies and locking people in portable toilets. Even after the jock had joined New Directions, they hadn't seen eye to eye. Over time, things had gotten better between them, but despite this particular bond, there was very little to connect them.

But now they had this. Of all the people on this planet, there they were, two boys from Lima, two students of McKinley High and members of New Direction, who had encountered a time travelling alien who went by the Doctor, going around in a blue police box. He had been so close to giving up, throwing in the towel and destroying years and years of pointless research and his one solid piece of evidence. The substitute teacher who he was convinced was in fact a friend and travelling companion of the Doctor's had still not identified herself as such, and there was nothing to keep him with his eye on the prize. And then… Noah Puckerman had happened.

"Tell me what happened, when you met them," he asked the boy with the mohawk.

"Look, I just kind of figured you were moping around because no one believed you, I just wanted to cheer you up or something. What I went through back then…"

"Please, you can't just say what you just said and then walk away," Artie refused.

"Before they left, the Doctor made me promise not to say anything. I may be a lot of things, but I like to think my word is good for something," Puck nodded firmly.

"To someone who doesn't know anything, sure, but this is me. I know about the Doctor, and the TARDIS," he lowered his voice. "You told me about meeting them, so part of you has to trust me with the secret already."

"I know that," Puck frowned.

"Look, I'll make you a deal. I'm good on my word, too. So you tell me about when you met the Doctor, and right after I will tell you about my own encounter."

"You know we have to go to class, right?" Puck looked at the clock on the wall. Artie had actually forgotten.

"Fine, then after the day is done, we meet up, and we swap stories, deal?" he held out his hand. Puck still looked to hesitate for a moment, but finally he sighed and put his hand in Artie's.

"Don't make me regret this."

For the rest of the day, Artie was a man reborn. He was so attentive in class, the better to make time pass as fast as possible, that some of his teachers had to tell him to stop putting his hand up and give the others a chance. After what had still felt like an eternity, the day was ended, and he was out in front of McKinley, waiting for Puck. It only briefly occurred to him that the boy might decide not to show up, but then he arrived, ready to leave school with him.

"Alright, let's get moving before anyone sees us and tries to join us," Puck went behind his chair, which caused Artie to grip the sides out of concern he might be thrown free.

"When did this happen? How old were you?" he asked as they left the school lot.

"Couple years ago, I guess. It was the summer when I was fifteen. Look, there's something you need to know before I start. I wasn't there for everything that happened. I know some things first hand, from what I saw, and I found out about some of the rest along the way, but there's a big part of it that I don't know. That part belongs to the Doctor, and the rest of them. You'd need to ask them for that one, but it's not like we can."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	2. Walls & Cells

_A/N: A quick note to reviewer brandon barclay, for lack of a way to message you otherwise: There are individual adventures to each of these stories in the series, and there is an overarching plot that is slowly unfolding as well. If you haven't read the previous stories as listed in chapter 1, I suggest maybe you check those out first. If there is any confusion along the way, I would be happy to reply, although as an anonymous reviewer, it's hard for me to write back. Hope this helped!_

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**"The Generational Purge"**

**2. Walls & Cells**

_Somewhere on Earth – Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Nathaniel Nash had been installed as warden just months ago, but already he had made a name for himself: the prisoners looked to him as a man even more dangerous than any of them could ever be. They hadn't been aware of it, not in the beginning. But now they'd had months. Now they had seen what he could do. Now everyone was toeing the line, because they knew what would happen to them if they didn't.

Warden Nash was a man of forty, who carried himself on precise and hushed steps. He missed nothing, saw all and heard all. The last thing anyone wanted was to get caught in his sights, and that was exactly what Jonathan Bailey had done. Now the warden had summoned him to Block Nineteen.

Two guards had come to escort him from his cell, and as he shuffled along, the man would look left and right, to the other prisoners, safe in their cells. This was not a man's prison, or a woman's prison. If the judge decided to send you to Orcus, it did not matter who or what you were. Right now, those men and women above looked at him, wondering if they would see him again.

X

_London, England – December 31__st__ 2099_

"Come on, Vicky, it's only the turn of the century about once every…"

"Hundred years?" Victoria Coates stepped out from her bedroom, turning about to show her new dress. "What do you think?" she asked her neighbor and friend Tasha.

"I'd say you're looking to be the first lay of twenty-one hundred," the woman chuckled and got a playful shove for it. "I mean you look fantastic," she amended.

"Better. Now, yes, let's get this party started."

X

_London, England – July 18__th__ 2067_

"Matt? Matt, wake up."

"What is it?" he mumbled, still asleep. "I'm having a very lovely dream about you and…"

"My water broke."

"How'd you manage that?" he frowned, still slumbering along.

"Matthew Coates, you need to wake up right now and get me to the hospital if you don't want this baby born on the carpet," his girlfriend, Bridget, had gritted her teeth. He was awake now, scrambling to get his shoes on. He had thought for sure they might share a birthday, him and the baby; he was turning twenty-one in four days.

"How close… You've had the contractions then?"

"Keep the questions for the car," she made her way to the door as fast as her feet could carry her. Matthew swept in to help her and got her in the passenger seat. "Last chance to put in a bet with the boys at the garage," she told him, taking a breath.

"Don't have to, already told them it'd be a girl," he put his hand to her belly and she smiled. "That's her, our Victoria."

X

_London, England – August 28__th__ 2043_

Declan Coates had been labeled a screw up his whole life. His teachers would say it, his bosses would say it, even his parents and his siblings. He didn't care that he was twenty-eight, unmarried, regularly unemployed… There was one person who didn't think him a screw up. Her name was Claire, and for her he had gotten his life in order. He'd held the same job for six months now, a personal record. His apartment hadn't smelled this good for this long since… ever. And today… today was the day. He was finally going to ask her out.

He walked into the diner that morning, spotting her behind the counter, red hair, freckles, and that smile… No one had a smile like her.

"I was beginning to think you weren't coming," she gave him a peek of that smile when she saw him walk up.

"Not a chance," he gave her his best smile, not nearly as good as hers, but what was, really?

"Coffee?" she offered, and he nodded. He was going to need it, if he didn't want to lose courage.

X

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Block Nineteen was cold, like no element of heat was allowed. Jonathan Bailey looked to the guards on either side of him. They looked like they felt nothing; how could they, with those helmets on. Every prisoner had the same impression about those things: they just felt wrong.

"Mr. Bailey." He looked back forward, finding Warden Nash was there, waiting for him. "Please sit," he pointed to the one chair in the middle of the small room. "You two get back to work, that'll be all," he went on to tell the guards, and something about it was ringing every alarm in Jonathan's head. "You've been with us how many years, Mr. Bailey?"

"Seven," he answered.

"Yes, that's right. And in those years, you've been sent into isolation how many times?"

"I wasn't keeping count," Jonathan frowned, looking aside. The warden replied with a bow of the head.

"Your previous warden kept count, and so have I. It has come to my attention that parole has been put on the table?" This was news to him, and again the alarms were clamoring.

X

_London, England – September 16__th__ 2006_

"Nicole, you're going to be late if you don't get moving!" her mother was calling, and she groaned, mouthing the words to herself as she tied the laces on her shoes and grabbed her bag. She dashed into the kitchen to kiss her mother goodbye.

"I'll be home late, don't wait up."

"Not seeing that Coates boy again, are you?" her face was unimpressed. "You're only twenty-two and…"

"So what if I do see him? It's not like I'm going to marry him," Nikki Tomkins smirked. "Love you!" she headed out the door, almost running straight into her neighbor. "Sorry, Mrs. Tyler!" she called.

"Late again?" Jackie called back.

"I know!" She could practically hear her mother's voice in her head, 'look where you're running, you're going to hurt someone someday.' She wasn't sure whether it was irony that she would be thinking this just as she did run into someone. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't…"

"Nicole Tomkins?" the Japanese woman asked her.

"Yeah, that's me," she blinked, smiling. That smile turned into shock when she felt something, a sharp pain in her stomach and then something wet. She barely registered the sight of her own blood, seeping through her shirt before she fell to the ground with her last breath.

X

_London, England – August 28__th__ 2043_

Claire Wadley hated the morning crowd. Most of them were either too asleep or in too much of a hurry to look at her like a human being. There was nothing to keep her tied to this job. Sometimes she thought of quitting. She couldn't be a waitress forever, could she?

X

_London, England – July 18__th__ 2067_

Bridget Finnegan would look to her girlfriends sometimes and wonder how any of them could be considering marriage at their age. They were still in school, all of them, and she knew one of them was bound to drop out to play wife and mother to the first guy who gave them a smile. She had better things to do with her life.

X

_London, England – December 31__st__ 2099_

Tasha Cole knew what could happen, going to one of Colin Bailey's parties without anyone, but it was the turn of the century, she couldn't miss it. None of her neighbors had any interest in going with her, but she didn't mind. She could do just fine on her own.

X

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

"Log entry, Warden Nathaniel Nash," he dictated. "Treatment number four was a success and the purge is complete," he dragged the empty chair back to the side of the wall. "Open directory," he turned to the screen on the opposite wall. "Inmate search. Bailey, comma, Jonathan." After a moment the pulsing 'search' icon had disappeared, and the results appeared.

_Zero results found for 'Bailey, Jonathan' in the inmate directory. Please try again._

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	3. And Then There Were Two

**"The Generational Purge"**

**3. And Then There Were Two**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

It had to have been Friday after he'd left, or someone had snuck in over the weekend, but when he got to his locker Monday morning, Artie found his locker door had been smeared with something he could assume was Slushie, judging by the cup left in front of it. The janitor had needed convincing to help him clean it, but finally he had. Artie still felt the syrup sticking the door to his fingers when he opened it, and he frowned to himself. This was not going to be a good day.

"Hey, dude, we've got incoming." He looked up, not knowing this really was addressed to him until he saw Puck jogging up to him. Artie blinked, confused.

"Incoming what?" he asked, and Puck frowned, leaning in.

"Substitute," he gave a pointed look.

"Gemma?" Artie forgot all about his locker woes.

"I saw her when I was coming out of Figgins' office," he nodded.

"What were you doing in Figgins' office?" Artie asked, but Puck didn't answer.

"I don't know what class she'll be teaching this time, do you?" _Actually, I might._

"I didn't see Miss O'Brien's car in the lot this morning, she's always there by the time I get in."

"I'm in O'Brien's class, that's good, right? Gemma, Ginny, whoever she is, she doesn't know me any more than I know her. So I can keep a lookout and she won't have a clue."

"Just try not to let her catch on to you. For now, I think the best we can do is to wait and see what she does."

X

Gemma wouldn't have expected it to feel this way, but being that this was her third posting now at McKinley, when she came through the doors it almost felt like coming home. This was where she had a purpose, whether she knew that purpose or not. In her apartment with her books, she was just like a race horse in its stall, waiting for the shot that would tell her go.

Now Ginny Harrison had arrived, and as she sat in the principal's office, she tried not to feel too much like the kid being handed a present from their weird uncle. _It could be anything._

"Right," the principal sat up in his chair, looking around his desk for a moment before finding the file he was searching for and opening it before himself. "Miss O'Brien, the English teacher, has had to leave town for a week due to unforeseen circumstances." _I'm pretty sure I've seen those circumstances._ "So here it is then," he closed the file and handed it to her. "It shouldn't be too hard."

"Are you kidding? This is going to be the best one yet," she took it with a smile. _If you could see the number of books I've read lately. This is going to be a piece of cake._ Realizing she might have been too forward, she sat up, trying to look like the calm substitute again.

"Yes, well… That is excellent. Now there is one more thing."

"Yes?"

"We've had changes to the faculty since your last week with us." Figgins had explained how their Spanish teacher had lost his post and been replaced. Mr. Schuester would take a position in the History department instead. In light of this, the teacher had gone and collected on some vacation time. His other classes had been dealt with, but this left one thing still without faculty supervision. "I've heard you have some musical experience?"

"I… Yes," she couldn't lie, even though she was starting to see what he was getting at, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"Good, yes, then you wouldn't mind perhaps seeing after the Glee Club while Mr. Schuester is away. You'll be compensated of course," he picked up another file and offered it to her.

She wished she could explain to him why it was that she got so nervous when she looked at that file. Part of it was excitement, of course it was. She wouldn't have gone to school as she did if she didn't have passion enough for it. And being in that room, the last time she had been posted at McKinley, she had felt like she was in a really good place, sitting at that piano and singing. Directing the Glee Club might have been the thing that came the most natural in all the jobs she'd held since this Ginny business had started, perhaps only equalled by this English position she was about to fill. That wasn't the problem.

But there were people in that room who had seen her before, and she did not mean before as in her previous postings, no. For the most part, it would not have been long enough for them to remember her, not in passing, but if given enough direct exposure, then who knew? Anything could spark a memory in them, and then she would have other encounters like the one she'd had with Artie, and the last couple of months might end up having been for nothing. Then of course there were those who'd had even more of a direct contact in the past. Little Padra had grown to be Sugar Motta, who showed no sign of remembering the woman who'd approached her in the inn, but that could change. And Artie… Oh, sweet little Arthur, now he definitely remembered her, and being in that room, she would be giving him even more reason to try and push a confession out of her.

But she was here now, and she had to know that, as problematic as this felt to her, there had to be a reason, and if the Doctor wanted her in that room, if Figgins wanted her in that room, too, then there was only one place for her.

"Sure," she took the file offered to her. "This should be fun."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	4. Pieces Missing in the Picture

**"The Generational Purge"**

**4. Pieces Missing in the Picture**

_London, England – September 19__th__ 2006_

There was no ignoring this call. Rose did her best to keep in touch with her mother, and even if she was worlds and worlds and centuries away, she had her phone which, thanks to the Doctor, could reach backwards and forwards through time to get her in direct contact with her mother. Jackie often would ask when the next time was that she would come back for a visit, and Rose would promise her soon. As she travelled in time, she could arrive within seconds of the call if she wanted to, right?

But this call had been different. There had been something in the woman's voice, and even if she hadn't actually flat out asked it, Rose knew what she was trying to ask her. She needed to come home, right away, and Rose knew something had happened. It couldn't have been her, she'd called, so… _No, not Mickey._ All the same with the Doctor, she'd never had to ask him, and the same went with Captain Jack. She was still getting to know the man, but she had known his response would be the same: they were home bound.

The TARDIS had landed them right by the estate, and as they'd approached, the trio couldn't help but notice the display of flowers and candles gathered at the side of the wall. Something very wrong had happened here.

"Go on, we'll catch up," the Doctor told Rose, and she'd gladly gone on ahead, sprinting up to the door and getting inside. Jackie Tyler had been waiting at the window, and when her daughter came up, she was ready to embrace her.

"You came," she breathed, and Rose didn't like the feeling of dread she was getting.

"Mom, what's happened?" When they'd pulled away, she could still see shock and sadness in her mother's eyes.

"It's terrible. Just terrible," Jackie shook her head. "It's Nikki Tomkins."

"Nikki from next door?" Rose felt a pinch. "Is she…"

"She left for work three days ago, didn't even make it to the street. Stabbed to death, right around the corner." It was like all her blood had turned to ice in a flash. _She used to babysit me when I was little._ "I tell you, no one's slept a wink since they found her body. I've seen four men come through for security systems around here since then, too. I'm looking to get one myself, I mean here I am, all by myself, and who's going to protect me?"

"Rose? Everything alright?" the Doctor asked as he and Jack stepped through the door. Jackie's eyes had swept right past the alien who'd taken her daughter off on to adventures to who knew where, and on to the tall stranger by his side.

"Well he'd do," she blinked.

"Mom, this is Ca… this is Jack, he travels with us now," Rose introduced him, and he stepped up to offer his hand, Jackie took it, never having taken her eyes away from him.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Tyler," he gave her a smile, and it echoed on to her face.

"And where did they find you?" she asked.

"It's a long story."

"I can put the kettle on."

"Mom," Rose tried to get her attention back.

"Something's wrong here," the Doctor had cut in then, and the others looked to him. "Someone's put their nose where it doesn't belong." His head was in another place entirely, like they weren't entirely sure whether he was talking to them or himself.

"All this time I've been worrying about where you've been taking her off to," Jackie turned to the Doctor. "Right now she might be safer with you than she is being here."

"Mom, no one's going to hurt you," Rose promised her, holding her again. As Jackie smiled to her, they heard a soft unidentified noise. "What's that?" Rose asked, and Jack startled, looking at his arm.

"Looks like a message," he frowned, looking at the cuff on his arm. "Someone's trying to reach me. The signal's too weak," he shook his head.

"We can patch it in to the TARDIS," the Doctor was with them once again.

"You two go on and see what that's about, I'm going to stay with her," Rose told him and Jack.

Inside the TARDIS, it wasn't long before Jack's message was finally able to be received. As he read it out, there was very little to clarify the mystery.

"Coordinates? Location… and a date."

"Friend or foe?" the Doctor wondered, but then Jack smirked, seeing the end of it, a code that could only have come from him.

"Friend, old friend. Jaime Grant. I haven't seen him in a while, although for him it might have been sooner."

"So why's he contacting you now?" Jack looked at the location again, and he frowned. He'd heard about this place, never found it, but maybe…

"Trouble."

X

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

They could have left Rose with her mother while they looked into this, but Jackie had insisted that she would be alright and that she should go, to stay away from this place until they knew it was safe. The Doctor was this close to thinking she would ask to come, too, but she didn't. So the three had returned to the TARDIS and followed the coordinates sent to Jack by this old friend of his. When they discovered the place was a prison, there had been some hesitation, perhaps not so much about whether or not they would go in as much as it was about how they would do it. The Doctor had made the decision for them: front door, with a side order of psychic paper.

When they had asked to see Jaime Grant, the man out front had asked for them to sign in. It was still anyone's guess what they were getting in for, though the PA system had told them at least one thing.

"_Prisoner Larsen to the warden's office. Guard Fourteen to the infirmary. Prisoner Grant to Block Three. Block Twelve is now closed."_

"He's a prisoner?" Rose looked to Jack.

"I dealt with him a few times, in the course of doing what I do… what I did. He's a good guy once you get to know him," Jack promised. "Can't say I'm surprised that he'd end up here though."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	5. Would Run, Can't Run

_A/N: I can't let this chapter go up, having been doing this gleekathon daily for almost four years now without expressing my condolences to the family and loved ones of Cory Monteith. It was a shock this morning, still can't quite process it. RIP, my fellow Canadian. You will be missed._

* * *

**"The Generational Purge"**

**5. Would Run, Can't Run**

_Orcus Penitentiary, in the year 3086_

James Grant, known to friends as Jaime, was brought into the room where visitors were told to wait, and he quickly spotted the table there for him. The guard to his left deactivated the beam which bound the cuffs on his wrists together. As he approached his old friend, he tried not to look as relieved as he was. If he didn't, he might have gripped Jack Harkness in his arms.

"Thank you," he said instead. "I wasn't certain my message would reach you. I had no other choice." Seeing his eyes turning to the two strangers, Jack got on to introductions.

"Jaime, this is the Doctor and Rose Tyler," he indicated, and they responded in turn with a bow of the head and a smile. "You can talk, they're here to help you, too." Jaime looked back to the guards before taking a seat with them.

"It's the new warden," he kept his voice low. "What he's been doing since he arrived. Everyone is too afraid to speak. These are not people who are known to hold their tongues, do you understand? But he's silenced us all."

"What's he done?" the Doctor asked.

"We've lost four since this began. He calls it a treatment. It's no treatment at all," he looked to Jack. "He…" Jaime searched for the words, to explain what they'd all been forced to piece together. "When he's decided someone is a lost cause, if they're about to be released… He calls them away, and we never see them again."

"You mean he kills them?" Rose blinked.

"That might be more merciful," Jaime shook his head. "He… he erases them, purges them."

"What?" Jack responded, and again Jaime spoke softly.

"After this… this treatment is done, the guards act like they never knew they were there to begin with, the cell is bare…"

"But you remember?" the Doctor asked.

"Not all of us do," Jaime shook his head. "I didn't remember the others, not until the last one. But we had to believe it anyway. With the warden, we can believe it." He placed his elbows on the table, hiding his hands so he might gesture for them alone to see. "Look at the guards there, careful," he instructed. "Do you see those helmets they wear? Courtesy of Warden Nash. Muddles their heads so they can't know what's really happening to them. They're not from here, not from now. They think they're guarding us?" he chuckled. "They're hostages is what they are."

"How do you know…" Jack asked.

"Because he told us. He explained that part very easily. They were stolen out of time to keep us in line. The old guards were dismissed after Nash arrived, then his helmet cases arrived. There is one guard to each prisoner, and that's because those guards are family, past, future, we can't know. They have no names, only numbers. Those two are Six and Nine," he indicated the ones who had accompanied him. "We don't know who belongs to who for certain and where they came from, but if something happens to one of them, we could disappear. These people here, some of them are as bad as they come, but if anyone goes near family, from whenever, then…"

"That's one way of keeping the population at peace," the Doctor spoke calmly.

"Except if the guards are off limits, then the prisoners are fair game," Jaime pointed out. "But they're here, so that's how we understood, if Nash can do this, then what's to stop him from sending someone to wipe us out before we even existed?"

"But they can't just…" Rose started. She had travelled with the Doctor long enough to know at the very least some of the damage this might do.

"Nash doesn't care," Jaime told her. "It's getting worse. I called you here… I think I'm next. Actually, I know I am." He startled when he heard a noise, thinking the guards had come closer, but they hadn't. They stood in the same place they had been, though they were touching their helmets, he saw. Turning back, he found the noise had come from something the Doctor held, toward him, discreetly moving it about. "What's that?" the Doctor slipped the object back in his jacket.

"Nothing, don't mind me. Jack, Rose, we need to go." He wasn't going to draw attention to any of them; not until they were out.

"Wait!" Jaime tried to keep his voice down.

"It's alright, we've got this," Jack promised. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

The guards blinked as though distracted and came to take Jaime back, while the trio started on back toward the TARDIS. By the decisiveness in the Doctor's steps, they had to believe he knew where they were going, or they had to hurry… or both… probably both. "Shouldn't we be going after the warden?" Jack asked.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, slowing down.

"We will, but there's something we need first," the Doctor opened the TARDIS door, dashing in to get a look at the readings he'd taken off Jaime.

"What's that?" Jack asked, as the Doctor noticed they were short one blonde.

"Rose?" he ran back out of the TARDIS, finding she still stood several paces away. "Come now, no time to waste."

"Something's wrong with the guards," she indicated and he looked.

Every last guard they saw was holding to their helmet like their heads hurt, but then a few seconds later they let go, looked around… Something was wrong, Rose had it right. "Back to the TARDIS. Now," the Doctor told her, and they turned to go, seeing Jack still inside.

They had taken no more than three steps before they saw the blue doors ahead of them snap shut before they could go through.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	6. Ace in the Hole

**"The Generational Purge"**

**6. Ace in the Hole**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Just as they had called it, when Puck presented himself to Miss O'Brien's English class, the woman was not there, but in her stead…

"Miss Harrison, what are you doing here?" he played.

"Well, as any substitute teacher might… I'm substitute teaching," she gave him a look that added 'now get to your seat.' He bowed his head, acting the dutiful student and moving to sit.

She would see him coming a mile away if he was Artie, now that he'd tried to call her on her secret. But she didn't know about him, at least he didn't think she did. He could sit there, spying on her, and she would have no idea, not if he played it right, which he intended to.

For someone who'd had as little time to prepare as she did, Ginny Harrison had come into this class with zero intention of letting them skate by on account of their teacher's absence. A good portion of the class had already checked out and now had to manage to check back in. Puck did the same, knowing he had to stay in the woman's good graces. He didn't know how he would do, but she wouldn't be able to penalize him on effort.

He had not been able to pay too much attention to her once the exercise had begun. It was going to take him his complete concentration to make sure he had something to hand in at the end. Somehow, the period had disappeared by the time he had finished, and when he looked up everyone else was queuing up to hand in the sheets and leave. At least this would leave him as the last one and then he could have an excuse to talk to her.

"How was that? Not too hard?" she asked, taking his sheets and adding them to the pile.

"I don't know, you tell me," he played with a smirk and she laughed. "It was better than with old O'Brien," he told her.

"Can't be that bad," she tried and failed not to chuckle, putting the papers in her bag.

"Have you even seen Miss O'Brien?" he bowed his head. "She's got these two big old moles on either side of her head like…"

"Like Frankenstein's monster?" Gemma couldn't help but say.

"Yeah, that," Puck pointed, then, "I thought Frankenstein was the monster…"

"Another day, another lesson," Gemma stood.

"The point is, you're more appealing to look at, if you don't mind me saying."

"Careful now, Puckerman," she warned with a smirk.

"Hey, I call them how I see them, and you're about one of the best ones I've seen up here, and believe me, I'm a crap student, I've seen my share."

"I'll say thanks, and you'll be on your way," she nodded to the door.

"Spoken for?" he asked, playing on. He couldn't see her face for a moment, but then she gave him a nod.

"Yes," she answered him.

"Serious?"

"Very," she told him. 'I see no ring,' he thought. "If I were you, I'd forget this."

"Right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push," he pulled it back.

"Don't worry about it, you wouldn't be the first," she promised. "So I'll see you in Glee Club, okay?"

"You'll what?" he blinked. "You're visiting again?"

"Substitute teaching," she repeated her smirk. "Mr. Schuester is out, too, your principal asked me to look after you as well as Miss O'Brien's class," she explained.

"Oh… cool," he put on a smile. "See you then," he tried not to rush out so fast. But he had to get a hold of Artie. He found him waiting by his locker; he wanted to know how it had gone, too.

"Well?" Artie asked.

"She had us working the whole time, I didn't get much of a chance to watch her."

"That's okay, there's next class," Artie told him.

"Did I say I was done? I did find out one thing."

"What's that?"

"Schuester's out for the week or something. Ginny-Gemma is taking over Glee Club while he's gone."

"That's perfect," Artie almost gasped. "It's even better than English."

"Well, yeah," Puck scoffed, then, "Wait, you meant for her, right?"

"It's her weak spot, we can use it, catch her off guard."

"How?"

"It's Gemma, the music, that's her, that's not Ginny," Artie explained.

"How do you know?"

"I just do. I don't know why she let that out, because when she was in Glee Club last month, I saw it. You didn't know her as Gemma but I did, and the woman who was in the choir room last month, that was Gemma Lucas, not Ginny Harrison." Puck didn't look too sure he understood, but in the end he gave a nod.

"So we might get her to give herself away."

"Yes."

"And that's what we want?" Puck wondered.

"If not for everyone, then… at least to me, to us." Puck considered this, finally nodded.

"Alright, let's give it a shot then."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	7. Stuck on the Front Step

**"The Generational Purge"**

**7. Stuck On The Front Step**

_Orcus Penitentiary – In the year 3086_

The doors wouldn't open. The Doctor tried them, tried the key, the screwdriver, but none of it would change matters. Neither them nor Jack had shut their way. And they had bigger problems around them.

"Jack! Can you hear us?" Rose still tried, just as they heard a crash from behind them. No, not a crash… Two of the guards had thrown the helmets from their heads, looking to each other.

"Who are you? Where am I? Did you bring me here?" one man asked the other.

"Me? You're the one with the…" the second man pointed, then looked down to himself and realized he also had a "… weapon!" At once they had grabbed their weapons and pointed them at each other; neither of them looked like they knew how to hold them properly.

"Rose, take my hand, don't make a sound," the Doctor kept his voice low, reaching back to her. She gave her hand as asked and he pulled her into a corner, hoping to keep out of sight. The men were both confused and armed; approaching them was out of the question. Too many things were happening, more than they knew.

In the cell block, when the guards had begun to grab at their heads, the prisoners had taken notice, and a number of them had been quick to think, imitating them. It didn't take much to understand what was happening to them. The 'spell' was breaking… broken.

The guards were still in a high state of confusion but they could hear, and when one of them heard a call for help, he looked up, finding a young woman behind a slotted glass door.

"Please, sir, help me," she called to him and he came running.

"Are you alright?" he asked. She looked around.

"Where am I?" she was near tears.

"Don't be frightened. I'm lost, too. What's your name?"

"Jaya… Jaya Misra."

"My name is Harinder Singh. My friends call me Hari."

"Hari?" she asked and he nodded. "Can you let me out of here?"

"I don't know how…" he looked back, seeing so many other confused people, on either side of the doors. Many were shouting.

"I think it's there," she pointed to controls behind a desk. "Can you try?"

"I will, just…" he realized he was about to say 'stay here' before he remembered where she was and finally ran for the controls. For a moment he would stare, but then it was just before him, and he looked to find the number above Jaya's door and pressed the matching key. The door slid open and Hari breathed, returning to the girl. "Everything will be…" he started to say.

"Alright," Jaya moved with ease, snatching the weapon at his hip. "Stay close and nothing will happen to you," she went to the controls, tapping a handful of door keys. Those whose doors remained shut began to shout louder, while those who were released stepped out, at times taunting the still trapped. Jaya held the weapon aloft and took two shots. "Quiet!" she spoke over them, flipping another switch. The unreleased began to fall unconscious all around them.

"What are you doing?" Hari looked to Jaya.

"They didn't believe us. Don't worry, they'll sleep."

The sound of the weapon had silenced the two men arguing, and it had taken Rose by surprise, making her gasp and cover her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the Doctor.

"We need to get to the TARDIS. Little help that'll be if we can't get inside. I'll have to talk to them."

"They'll shoot you," Rose refused.

"I don't think they're that good of a shot," he scoffed and she frowned. "Right, bad timing."

"Why won't it let us in?" Rose asked.

"What's that noise?" one of the men asked, and Rose thought he might have heard her, until she realized what this noise was he was referring to.

The TARDIS had begun to dematerialize, and it was about to get harder to concentrate on staying hidden when this bigger problem was landing on their shoulders.

There was no way of stopping it, so instead they had to get themselves out of the way before the guards could take their eyes away from the mysterious disappearing box.

"Jack didn't do that did he?" Rose asked the Doctor as they crouched out of view. They were still getting to know him, but they wouldn't peg him for a TARDIS thief.

"No, he didn't. But we're here now, and we might be for a while still. We'll have to do what we can. Rule one: no sonic."

"Why not?"

"If the prisoners try and get out, we would be handing them a key. Don't confuse them for something they're not because we're helping Jaime. These people are dangerous."

"I know. But what do we do about them?" she nodded toward the guards.

The sound of the weapons had come no more than a second later. The Doctor and Rose looked up; the guards had found them.

"Who are you?" the first asked. Rose looked to the Doctor, thinking fast.

"Rose… Tyler. Where are we?"

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	8. New Pilot in the Driver's Seat

**"The Generational Purge"**

**8. New Pilot in the Driver's Seat**

_Inside the TARDIS_

When he'd seen the doors start to close, Jack took a run for them, but they were already shut, and they wouldn't open again.

"Doctor? Rose? Do you hear me?" he tapped at the doors, still trying to get them open, with no avail. "Right, so much for that, he frowned and went back to the controls, hoping to find something, anything that would get the doors to…

When the TARDIS came alive, he thought he might have tripped something, but it couldn't be. He was thrown off his feet, barely managing not to slide off to the wall.

"No, no, it's not time to go," he tried to land the ship again before he ended up out of the prison. The Doctor and Rose were still there, and he didn't know much about this ship, but he knew it wasn't going to leave without reason.

He wasn't entirely sure if he was achieving, but then the vibrations stopped, and so did he, pulling his hands back. He ran for the doors, hoping they would no longer be stuck his hands back. He ran for the doors, hoping they would no longer be stuck. He was so relieved when he felt it open, he stepped out… and his heart sank. This was not the prison… not even close.

He didn't know where he was, but his impression was America, more than a thousand years from where he had been a moment ago. He looked back to the TARDIS, wondering why he had been brought here of all places.

"Fine, Noah, if you're going to be this way, you're going to wait out here while your sister and I go in there. And if you're not sat exactly here when we come out, I'll make you wish you had." The woman had taken a young girl by the hand and walked up toward what looked to be a museum, leaving a boy sat on a bench outside. The boy turned sideways, straddling the backless bench, and Jack froze.

If he hadn't known any better, he would have said this boy could be a young Jaime Grant, fifteen or sixteen years old. They had to be related. Maybe he was starting to get why he'd been brought to this…

He had gotten a bad feeling the moment he saw the Japanese woman walking out of the museum. In all his years he had gotten to know a lot of sorts, but for certain he knew an assassin when he saw one. If what Jaime said was true, what the warden was doing, and that his number was coming up… here was his ancestor, and there was the woman who had come to eliminate him. She must have realized the boy was not inside the museum.

She'd caught him looking at her; she'd seen the boy, too. He had to act fast. He went up to the boy, assessing his options as he went.

"You can't sit here," he first spoke, and the boy looked up. He had his eyes.

"Why not?" he frowned.

"My crew's about to paint it."

"You need a crew to paint a bench?" he chuckled.

"Not just this one. Now, come on, right this way," he reached to his shoulder when he got up, and the boy shrugged him off.

"Hands off, perv, I got the message," he started to move on, and Jack looked back. The woman was still coming toward them, and she'd catch up if they didn't hurry.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" he tried to reengage him.

"Seriously? Leave me alone," he groaned, and Jack sighed. No time.

"I can't do that, Noah." That got his attention.

"How do you know my name?"

"Look, you're in danger. I'm here to protect you."

"Sure, I bet you say that to all the boys," he went faster. At least he was heading closer to the TARDIS.

"I knew your name, didn't I?" he pointed out, thankful for having heard it.

"Fine, what's my last name?" the boy dared him. It wasn't going to be Grant, not this far back. "I didn't think so," Noah nodded victoriously. "Touch me again, I'll drop you. Talk to me again, I'll shout for help." The woman was getting too close. She wasn't running, wouldn't, not without drawing attention, but that didn't make them any safer. He had no choice.

"I'm really sorry about this," he told Noah before grabbing him, pulling him to the TARDIS. He kept him from shouting, and as good as he was, he did think for a moment he wouldn't be able to get him through the door undetected. As soon as he'd pulled at the struggling boy, the woman had dropped pretense. He pushed Noah inside and shut the doors, locked them. Within seconds he could hear her banging against the doors.

"Alright, you asked for it," Noah scrambled to his feet, ready to change, and Jack held up his hand.

"Hey, stop! Look around you, look where you are!" The boy frowned, like he figured the man was trying to mess with him, but already he could see something wasn't right, and he slowly turned.

He had seen the blue box sitting out there, he knew how small it had been. They were inside, for sure, he had seen him open the doors, but… this couldn't be.

"How is it bigger on the inside?"

"It's a ship. It travels in time and space," Jack breathed. The boy gave a disbelieving look. "You got a better explanation? Look, I didn't want to have to do it like this, but you really were in danger… still are. I'm not going to hurt you." Noah looked around a second time. He could hear the banging outside the door. "That would be the danger I was talking about," Jack told him.

He was starting to believe him; that was all he needed. "Alright," Noah crossed his arms. "Start talking."

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	9. With a Clear Head

**"The Generational Purge"**

**9. With A Clear Head**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

There were five who had been let out of their cells thanks to Jaya Misra. The girl was twenty-three years old, and she had been at Orcus since only a few days before Nathaniel Nash had been installed as warden. She'd had little trouble believing who these guards were; Harinder Singh was her father… would be her father, in little to no time, she imagined. He kept whispering her mother's name like he needed to get back to her. She'd changed her name when she had left home, but if he looked at her long enough, would he see her mother in her?

Two more women had been freed. The Allaway twins, Sara and Ingrid, were twenty-nine and an Orcus case for years before they had been caught and sentenced two years ago. They might have been sent to two different places, but word was Ingrid had done 'something' to make sure they both ended up at Orcus.

The three men, like the others, had been brought together by nothing more than their ability to retain memories of their purged fellow prisoners. It had not been smooth sailing for them as a 'team.' Though he was the youngest of the three at twenty-eight, Nico Reyes had been at Orcus the longest. Eight years already he had been one of their prisoners, and nothing had ever thrown him, not until Nash and his so-called treatments. It took something menacing to get someone like Nico Reyes to toe the line. It was another story for Percy Hackett. Thirty-one years old, the man was so quiet at times you wouldn't know he was there at all; this was precisely the kind of thing which had landed him at Orcus five years ago. He made no waves. He would serve his sentence and then he would be on his way. The last of the three was the closest to what one might call a loose cannon. Deck Vicario was thirty, and when he had seen his cell neighbor erased from existence, his cries had fallen on deaf ears, getting him branded as a case for psych ward, all until Jaya Misra and Ingrid Allaway confirmed they knew the purged one as well.

With all other prisoners immobilized, the six had made quick work of rounding up all the confused guards they could get their hands on. They were forced to relinquish weapons and helmets before sitting where the six could see them. As easily as this had been achieved, now the next phase would be so to the point.

The Doctor and Rose, still unaware of this turn, had followed the two guards who found them, knowing they had to get along with these people, to figure out how to stop it, but also to try and stop the meddling warden. Somehow in the time before they had found the man and the girl, the previously quarrelsome pair had started to communicate, which could be a good thing or a very, very bad one. When they had found the Doctor and Rose, they had made them stand and follow, which left them with no answer still as to what they would do. Rose had stumbled to a stop when she heard the whistle, and the man behind had nudged for her to keep going.

"Didn't you hear that?" she turned to ask, seeing what the guard didn't see. A prisoner rushed up from behind and struck him down. Rose reacted, as did the Doctor, before the second guard stopped him and pointed his weapon at the prisoner. But before he could say a word, he was struck as well… by Jaime Grant.

"Are you two alright?" he asked.

"Yes, well…" Rose looked to him, to the stranger.

"That's Norman, he's a friend," Jaime promised.

"Handy, Norman," the Doctor nodded.

"Where's Jack?" Jaime noticed his absence.

"We were separated," the Doctor revealed. "He was on my ship when this started. He got away, which could be good news for you, if what you said is true. He'll be our man on the outside."

"Right…" Jaime had no choice to accept.

"Now about these guards," the Doctor crouched by the fallen men.

"It was no accident," Norman spoke with confidence. "This was orchestrated. The Doctor looked up, then stood and offered his hand.

"And that's Norman…"

"Larsen," he replied.

"So how do you know this, Norman Larsen?"

"Because they knew I could do it, so they made me," he bowed his head.

"You did this?" Rose was surprised.

"I had no choice." He was trying to sound at ease, but there was stress in his voice. He was telling the truth, but that wasn't all he was saying. The Doctor looked at him for a moment before turning to Jaime.

"Who's 'they?'"

"That'll be the other ones, those who can remember the purged. There are six of them back in their cells."

"What makes you think they'll still be in their cells?"

"They wanted the guards to have a clear head," Norman spoke up, and the Doctor turned back.

"What for? What are they going to do with those 'clear' heads?"

"I don't know, they didn't tell me anything else except what to do and when."

"When? They gave you a time?" Rose asked and he nodded. "Why now and not earlier or later?"

"I haven't figured that part out yet," Norman shook his head. "I was coming back when I found Jaime in trouble."

"My guards had some… issues as well," he looked to the men on the ground.

"Right, well we better find out. We need to get to the warden," the Doctor declared.

"Wait," Jaime spoke. "Before that… I need your help with something."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	10. Opened to New Joys

**"The Generational Purge"**

**10. Opened to New Joys**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

It wasn't long that everybody in Glee Club knew not only that Mr. Schuester was absent but also who was replacing him. It had been two months since their library project, and after her previous return, Sugar was happy at the prospect of seeing Miss Harrison again. Sam, for his part, was finding this more of an inconvenience. His nose had healed just fine in the last month, but he was feeling like any thought of the substitute teacher made his nose start to ache all over again.

Artie and Puck had come in to the room, they believed, ready to fool the woman they called Gemma Lucas. For one thing, they would sit apart, Artie to the left, Puck in the middle of the back row; opposite ends would have been too obvious. Beyond this, the mission was simple. Gemma-Ginny was in her weak spot and they were going to take advantage of it to make her slip up. This wasn't about exposing her to the whole room though, so they would proceed carefully.

Gemma had spotted them out the moment she came through the door. She had known to keep her eye on Artie, and when she did she found he had apparently gained a buddy. _Figures it would be him…_ Now that she was seeing this though, it was putting the entire scene earlier in English class in perspective, including the advances. _Why do they always think that's the way in?_ Now she was going to have two of them to dodge. She'd had worse things to deal with than two teenage boys trying to catch her out, but she knew she couldn't be too confident. One pair of eyes trailing her becoming two pairs could snowball into six, eight… One day, things were going to change, but until then, she had to watch herself.

"Alright, guys, so I guess the word's out, right?" she called to the chattering room. The group turned and there was a rumble of greetings before they could finally quiet down. "Mr. Schuester is out this week, so you're going to have to help me out here, alright?"

"I thought you were all special piano lady," Santana chuckled, and Gemma smirked.

"And you just became my first contestant. Down here, come on," she gestured her over, bringing the mic stand to the center of the room. The rest of the room turned to Santana, who frowned but obeyed.

"If you wanted me to solo, all you had to do was ask," she came to stand at the mic. "Any requests?" she planted her hands on her hips.

"Yes, actually," Gemma went and sat down in the seat she had vacated, right next to Puck. She felt him tense up immediately. Even Artie was looking suddenly destabilized in the front row.

"Who's got their iPod nearby?" Gemma asked, and seven or eight hands went digging into bags and pulled them out. "Right. Rachel, what's the last thing you were listening to?"

"I… Well…" the girl looked red, holding the small thing near to herself.

"Hand it over, not the headphones," Gemma instructed, and Rachel did so, with her head all but lowered in submission. Her arm stretched behind Artie's head, and Gemma took the iPod. She looked at the screen, biting back a smirk. "Santana," she held it out to her. "There's your request."

"Just like that, no…" she started, pausing with a half snort when she saw the song, and Rachel groaned in her hand. "Okay, but I can't…"

"Sure you can. I thought you were al special solo girl," she tossed the line back at her… They could hear a pin drop. Santana saw Rachel looking back at her, mouthing a sincere 'sorry.' "Well?" Gemma asked.

"What about the band?"

"They'll catch up," Gemma threw a smirk to Brad at the piano; he had no idea how to respond.

"Okay, fine, you made your point, I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now sing," Gemma nodded. "I'll make it interesting," she promised.

"How interesting?" Santana asked.

"You'll love it, trust me."

"Why should I?"

"Just sing and you'll find out," Gemma nodded. It was near on a battle of the wills, and Gemma was not budging.

After she'd sung her song, Santana had been allowed to turn this bit of solo lottery on to someone of her choosing. Before long, the awkwardness had been erased, with some of them all but calling to be picked. They could moan about the whole deal, or they could have fun with it.

When the bell rang, they were down to debating who of Sugar or Tina would go next, and the argument was so loud that they nearly missed the sound. When Gemma did catch it, the argument had come to an end in a flash, as she stood and took her bag.

"Alright, that was good, now for next time though, I want you to prepare songs you would actually like to perform, possibly at a competition. Real award winner, you know? Think it through, I'll see you then."

Without another moment left to answer her, the substitute teacher was gone, leaving the Glee Club confused.

"She was in a hurry," Mercedes scoffed.

Artie looked back to Puck, waiting for him to follow. Heading into the hall, there was no trace left of Gemma.

"I think she's on to us," Artie shook his head.

"You think?" Puck frowned. "What do we do?"

"Let's just wait and see what happens next. We'll get another chance, when we do, we'll take it."

"Again… What do we do?" Puck sighed, and when Artie remained silent, he went off on his own. Artie watched him go. Maybe there was something they were missing in all of this, something that made that they kept hitting this brick wall. If that was the case, then they had to find it, or they'd never get anywhere.

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	11. The Science in the Fiction

**"The Generational Purge"**

**11. The Science in the Fiction**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Jack was secure in the knowledge that there was nothing but the slimmest chance in hell that the woman could ever find a way to break in. But he could still hear her banging on the doors, so she was either stubborn or she really did have something to break in. He ran to the viewer, getting a visual on their unwanted guest. She was young, younger than he'd originally guessed. He wouldn't put her over twenty-five. Her hair was dyed a striking shade of turquoise and ran straight down to the small of her back. She wasn't discreet about her look, people would remember her, and he didn't know if that impressed him or scared him.

"Who's she?" Noah asked, standing behind him. He could see the woman on the viewer, pacing, like a hunter circling its prey.

"We didn't have time to exchange contact information," Jack shook his head.

"But she wants to kill me?" Why? And who are you?"

"My name's Jack," he sighed. "Jack Harkness," he left out the Captain, seeing how inquisitive the boy was.

He had to focus on the woman, especially now that she'd stopped banging at the door. She just stood there, looking at the TARDIS, and then… she smiled. There was something about it, too: he knew exactly what she'd thought about that made her so happy all of a sudden. She took two steps away from the ship and then they watched her vanish.

"What just happened?" Noah sputtered, while Jack scrambled.

"Oh no you don't," he went looking about, spotting something in the ground. "Yes," he pulled a grate back and started digging at the trunk.

"Hey!" Noah raised his voice. Jack's head popped back up.

"About a thousand years from now, one of your descendants is in jail, and there's a man there who is able to send someone back in time to kill one of his ancestors so he's never born," Jack rambled on.

"Like in Terminator?" Noah frowned, while Jack shut the trunk and went looking through another. He'd heard the Doctor say he had this thing once, he knew he did.

"Yeah, sure," Jack told him.

"I'm the ancestor?"

"That'd be it in a nutshell, yes."

"You're not going to sleep with my mom and become my dad, are you?" Jack looked up.

"What are you…"

"Like in the movie," he gestured. "Wait, but I already exist, so that can't be." Jack ignored this and went back looking. "How come you have a space ship?"

"It's not mine, I borrowed it…" That wasn't exactly right, but the other story would take too long. They had to hurry.

"Why?"

"Because I can't let you die. Not just because it would be wrong and disrupt time, but… That man they're trying to purge, he's a friend of mine."

"How is she going to get me now that I'm here though?" Jack emerged again, changing spots.

"She's not."

"I thought you said…" The boy was taking this whole thing very calmly, which might have been helpful if it wasn't for the fact that, instead of being concerned, he was asking question upon question, which was distracting Jack from his search. So he turned to him again.

"Say there was something you wanted. You tried it one way, but it's not working. What do you do?"

"Pound the guy?" Noah guessed, and Jack frowned, so he answered seriously. "I don't know, I'd just find another way to… oh."

"Right. She's going to go after someone else, between you and her target, your descendants."

"You mean… I have kids someday?" Noah looked halfway between discouraged and apologetic. "Those people, they're like family. We can't let her hurt them," he begged.

"Oh, so it's 'we' now, I'm not a 'perv' anymore?" Jack asked him before going back trunk diving.

"I haven't made up my mind. Now what are we supposed to do?" Jack cried out in surprise when he saw what looked like…

"Got it," he climbed out of the hole with something Noah frowned at immediately.

"What's that?"

"This… this is how we figure out where she's going. Seeing as I've got you, I can use this to track… I guess you could say disturbances in your line."

"Wait, this is going to be where I have to give you blood, isn't it?" he took a step back.

"Not even," Jack simply held up the object and pointed it at him. The boy froze, which was just as well, giving them a cleaner scan.

"Is this going to turn into Back to the Future? Like I'll start to disappear?"

"You watch a lot of movies, don't you?"

"Beats studying," Noah shrugged.

"How old are you?" Jack had to ask.

"Eighteen," he stood up tall, and Jack gave him a look. "Fine, fifteen," he corrected.

"Since when?"

"Couple weeks ago," he sighed.

"You're just a kid," Jack hated to think that they'd try to get at Jaime through him. Before Noah could complain about being called a kid, there was a blip on the machine. There was a match. "If we get out of this, less movies, more homework." And they were off.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	12. Just Not This One

**"The Generational Purge"**

**12. Just Not This One**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Following Jaime and his prisoner friend Norman had taken the Doctor and Rose to get a peek in at what was happening in the cell block they belonged to. There they saw what looked to be six prisoners, holding about twice as many guards. The group was kept sitting on the ground, freed of their helmets as well as their weapons. Peering through the windows as discreetly as they could, the question remained.

"What are we doing here?" Rose whispered.

"There's someone in there, a… guard… I need to get her out of there," Jaime revealed.

"Why her?" the Doctor wondered.

"I just do," was all he would say, and Rose looked to the Doctor.

"Maybe it's his girlfriend, do you think?" she whispered. He frowned. "It could be," she insisted. "Although, with those helmet things, would she remember all that now?"

"Wouldn't get my hopes up," the Doctor replied.

"If there's any chance, even if there's no chance, we should help, shouldn't we?"

"What do you think?" he asked, and she looked back to Jaime.

"What do we have to do?"

"These prisoners reasonable?" the Doctor asked.

"This isn't a rescue," Jaime shook his head, sensing this might be what they believed. "They won't hurt the guards, not ever. This isn't about them, it's me. There are six of them, and they won't appreciate me going on my own."

"So you need protection," the Doctor's posture shifted.

"If there are four of us, it might not go beyond words," Jaime explained. They'd run across their fair share of potentially life-threatening situations, him more than her, and they could turn bad very fast, again for him more than for her experience. He wouldn't look at her as defenseless, as she'd proven herself more than once, but he had promised her mother, now more than ever, that he would always bring her home. _Sending her down a pit of a tunnel was one thing; the tunnel doesn't shoot._

Jaime had swiped one of the guards' entry keys, and as soon as the door was opened, standing behind the two prisoners, the Doctor and Rose could hear the cocking and whirring of what must have been nearly a dozen weapons. On reflex, the Doctor tried to put himself in front of Rose as much as he could. But then the weapons went down.

"It's you," a woman's voice called. "Where'd you go?"

"I had visitors," Jaime answered.

"And you, Larsen. Sick again?" a man asked, with laughter in his voice.

"Yes," Norman simply answered, and both the Doctor and Rose could tell he was lying.

"Who's that?" the woman spoke, raising her weapons again.

"Put them down, Ingrid," Jaime warned. "These are my visitors. They were trapped here."

"Why don't you step forward?" the man asked. "We don't bite, you know?"

"Biting isn't what concerns me," the Doctor frowned, looking back to Rose as they stepped up in between Jaime and Norman.

"Look at you, Grant," said another woman, who looked a whole lot like this Ingrid one. "Bringing us hostages. I'm not sure what you have in mind, but…"

"We're not hostages," Rose spoke as Jaime did.

"They're not hostages, Sara. They're friends. I need Guard Eight." The change in mood was instant.

"What do you need her for?" a young Indian woman circled the guards sat on the ground, stopping next to what the Doctor and Rose had to assume was Guard Eight.

"It doesn't concern you, Jaya."

"I think it does," Jaya took the guard by the shoulder and she tensed, shutting her eyes.

"Please don't hurt me," she begged.

"Why would I do that?" Jaya hushed. "Him on the other hand," she threw a look back to Jaime.

"Excuse me, if I may," the Doctor took a step forward, earning himself six weapons pointed in his direction. "Well that's unnecessary."

"Down, now," Jaime raised his voice. "You too, Deck."

"Alright, we'll make you a deal," the man looked to the others. "You can have her."

"Wait for it…" the Doctor muttered.

"But if you get our girl, we get yours," Deck pointed to Rose.

"Deal," she spoke before any of the others could.

"Rose," the Doctor glared at her, but she wouldn't change her mind.

"But if you get me, they get another. I'm worth two, aren't I? I'm not like the rest of them," she pointed out, knowingly announcing the fact she knew about Warden Nash and his treatments. No one spoke, as the six considered the offer.

"Alright, you get Eight and Fourteen, go," Deck pointed as Rose stepped forward.

"Deck, they don't remember that," Jaya pointed out, nudging the girl to stand before moving to another, an Indian man. "Hari, that's you." The man looked more than happy to be switching sides.

"Just be careful out there," a second man told the Doctor, Jaime, and Norman. "Wouldn't want us to change our minds and come back for you."

"Whatever you say, Nico," Jaime nodded, leading his group past them. The Doctor and Rose shared a look as he passed. He knew what she was doing, but he couldn't stop his concerns for her.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	13. Far, Far From Life

**"The Generational Purge"**

**13. Far, Far From Life**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

No one would be getting to him. No matter what they tried, his office had been altered as soon as he'd arrived, and it would do its job today. No one could see him, which was just as well. Nathaniel Nash was not a nervous man by nature, but today he had something to be concerned about.

His one card to play was presently out of reach. Beatrice Oshiro was his instrument, implementing his justice, but as long as she was out on an assignment, he could not reach her. He would have thought these travels meant she would be gone one second and back the other, but it didn't work that way. She would be gone as long as it took her to finish what she'd started, and this one was taking longer than expected.

Now here he was, with a massive problem. He had monitors all along this wall, showing him every last area of his prison, and he could see what was happening with the guards, what the prisoners were up to, and there were some visitors still on the grounds. He was following one group above all else. This group was coming toward his office.

X

The Doctor had been watching his companions on this walk going… he wasn't sure where. He had Jaime definitely in charge amongst them, by the looks of it. Norman was with them, though there was something about him that did feel more as though he wasn't really there, with them. There was something that set him apart, and the Doctor hated that he couldn't figure out what that was just yet. And then there were the 'guards,' Eight and Fourteen. They just looked confused.

"Are you alright there?" he asked them. The girl was walking with her arms wrapped around herself, eyes darting left and right at the slightest noise, while the man was intrigued by his uniform. At the Doctor's question, they paused.

"I still don't understand," the man Fourteen spoke. "Where are we? How did we get here?"

"What do you remember?" the Doctor asked. He could feel the prisoners looking back as they all went.

"I was at work, finishing what needed to be done before joining the others for lunch. I heard… there was someone, there behind me, I think, and then…" he reached to the back of his neck, recalling. The Doctor pulled his collar back for him, seeing right before the man's fingers covered it, a small circular scar.

"And the next thing you remember is when your helmet malfunctioned, isn't it?" the Doctor guessed, and the man nodded. "What about you?" he asked the girl.

"Doctor…" Jaime looked back to him. Did he not want her disturbed, or did he not want her talking? She spoke anyway.

"I was waiting… for a train," she frowned, struggling to remember more than the man had. "It was delayed, so I went to get a magazine from the newsstand. A man bumped into me… at least I think. It might have been a woman. Something hurt, and then…" she pointed to her collar as well.

"Alright, now this one might be a little complicated for you, but I need to know. What's the year?" The two guards stared at him, then each other.

"It's 3062," the man replied.

"What?" the woman blinked. "That's impossible."

"Can you really vouch for impossibility at a time like this? Where did you come from, what year?"

"T… 2036," she replied.

"Far from home, aren't we?" the Doctor tried to sound as sympathetic as he could, being aware of how lost they'd be feeling at this point.

"Alright, I think it's enough now," Jaime spoke up.

"I had to leave Rose behind with your friends back there so we could rescue your lady love here, so excuse me if I need to…"

"Lady what?" the woman Eight interjected.

"Who said she was?" Jaime shook his head, and now the Doctor realized they'd gotten it all wrong.

"How long have we been here?" Fourteen asked. "I don't understand, but it feels like I've been here for some time and I don't remember any… any of it," he shook his head.

"I'd imagine it's been months," the Doctor told him, and his face turned pale.

"Months?" Eight repeated. "What is all this?" she looked at her clothes again. "Why am I dressed this way, is this a game?"

"Doctor, you're overwhelming them," Jaime warned. Eight looked at him, turning back to the man who'd been kind to try and help them so far.

"You're a Doctor?"

"Actually, it's my name. I'm the Doctor. Might not be best to get into that now."

"Can you just… Who is that man?" she kept her voice down, indicating Jaime.

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, it's so strange, he looks so much like…" she shook her head, still siding with impossibility. "He looks like my father."

"Does he?" the Doctor's ears perked up.

"Not completely, but a lot."

"That woman back there," Fourteen piped in. "I didn't want to say, but she looks like my wife, almost like they are related."

"What is your name?" the Doctor asked him.

"Harinder Singh. My friends call me Hari," he introduced himself.

"She isn't your wife, but tell me this, do you have any children?"

"Not yet," he smiled. "But we are expecting our first." He blinked. "Doctor said it would be a-a girl."

"You, what's your name?" the Doctor turned to the blonde.

"Beth. My name is Beth Corcoran."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	14. Fruit From The Tree

_A/N: *running around and flailing* Still haven't recovered from the 12th Doctor reveal ;) I'm so happy :D_

* * *

**"The Generational Purge"**

**14. Fruit From the Tree**

_San Diego, California – 28 September 2114_

Chester Hinds would like to think that he had everything he could want in life. He was a student, an accomplished one at that, and while it still meant he had to keep two jobs to balance everything out, he didn't mind. He came from a good family, and he had loyal friends. He only had one issue, one… problematic… flaw. He was a tragedy when it came to girls.

Now here he was, working his first job, at the university bookstore, and one was coming toward him. He'd felt something instantly, he'd always had a soft spot for rainbow colored hair, and this one had long turquoise hair.

X

_Inside the TARDIS_

As soon as the ship had taken off, Noah had understood why the guy told him to hang on to something. He barely got hold of the railing and he held on for dear life. But he wasn't worried at all. This was the coolest thing that ever happened to him.

When they'd come to a stop, he'd looked back to the guy, who was busy checking on the thing he'd pulled out of the floor space.

"We're here," he confirmed, moving to the viewer.

"Where's here?"

"The bigger question is when, and the answer to that is… the year 2114."

"Are you serious?" Noah was stunned. "Are there flying cars?" he asked.

"We have bigger things to worry about here. I have to take you with me, so you need to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say. That woman out there, the assassin, she will kill you the first chance she gets, make no mistake."

"Got it," Noah nodded.

"Don't do anything stupid out there, because if she gets away, we need to be able to follow her again."

"Dude, I get it. Now let's go before it's too late."

X

_Bookstore, 2114_

They were easy to find, or at least she was. Once they had her in sight, all they had to do was find who she had her eyes on, and by the looks of it, they had come just in time. She was approaching a young man, early twenties, and they knew that was their target to protect.

"This way," Jack told the boy and they cut through the aisles until they could get to him. As soon as they had cut in between the young man and the assassin, they froze, all three travelers. The assassin discovered her primary targets and the one who'd taken him from her had somehow tracked and followed her. And Jack got to see what she did when she saw Noah: nothing. She could travel in time, she could simply off either one of the two and then disappear, and she would be in the clear. Instead, she retreated. She wouldn't touch bystanders. This was good to know.

"Great…" the young man lamented, which brought Jack and Noah to turn to him. He was looking after the turquoise-haired girl like he'd wanted nothing more than to talk to her. Instead he had a man and a boy standing there. So he sighed, back to work. "Can I help you find something?"

"No, but we're here to help you," Jack told him. "What's your name?"

"What, I… Chester," he managed to reply, and before Jack could go on, Noah cut in.

"Chester? Seriously?"

"Noah," Jack almost smacked him upside the head.

"What's going on?" Chester asked, before his eye was drawn to something behind them. he was still hung up on the girl that got away, and the other two looked, too, just in time to catch her disappearing. "Woah! Did you see that?" he sputtered. "She just…"

"Well, this should make it easier," Jack frowned.

"And faster, hurry up," Noah insisted.

"The woman there, she's an assassin, and she came here to kill you."

"Me? Why me? I didn't do anything," Chester protested.

"It's nothing you did. She's from the future, and she came back to eliminate the ancestor of a prisoner to wipe him and his whole line off."

"Seriously?" he was dumbfounded.

"Yeah, she came after me, first," Noah revealed.

"Wait, then that'd mean we're related?" he stared at the teenager.

"Yeah… Chester," Noah scoffed. "I don't see the resemblance though," he looked the blond man up and down.

"Look we need to go," Jack cut in. "Now that we've stopped her getting you, she'll find another target."

"Wait, we can't just leave him," Noah tapped his descendant's arm.

"What… I'm not going anywhere with you," Chester stepped back.

"Did you not hear what we said? That chick is trying to kill you. Dead. No more Chester. He's got a ship that travels in time," Noah pointed to Jack.

"Speak up, I don't think the rest of the store heard you," Jack frowned.

"She's going to go after people that are related to us, and she might come back for you. You don't want that to happen, do you?"

"Well… no…"

"You sure came on board all of a sudden," Jack commented to Noah.

"And you'll be safer with us than here. And the ship is really weird but in a good way. So are you coming or not?"

"The sales pitch is kind of shaky, but he's got the right of it," Jack backed him up.

"Fine," Chester finally sighed.

"Then let's go, she's probably found someone else by now," Noah led on, while Jack guided the confused bookstore clerk toward the TARDIS.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	15. To Each His Own

**"The Generational Purge"**

**15. To Each His Own**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Rose had made the decision in a flash. Now that they had been separated from Jack, it left only the Doctor and her to deal with the situation as it was, here in the prison. Jaime and this Norman fellow were going after the warden, she'd figured that much. But then there were these people, and from what she knew, what she'd been told, the decision she had come to was that the efforts had to be split. One of them needed to be with Jaime, and then the other one should be with the group. When the opportunity had presented itself, she'd had no choice but to take it.

Now that she was here, all she could do for the moment was to get as much of a grasp on these people as she could. So that was what she had to do, and she did. She watched.

What she noticed very early on was that, for all the people who were sat on the ground with her, the six who stood around them all seemed focused on only one, maybe two of them, or none at all. That one was the Indian woman, the one they'd called Jaya. She was not looking at them, if anything, she was looking back at the door through which the Doctor and the others had gone.

The ones who had their eyes on two were the twins, which she'd heard called Ingrid and Sara. They appeared to have honed in on a man and a woman. The man looked about their age; the woman was younger.

The other three, the men, each had their eyes on one person. The one called Deck was after a woman his age. The second one, Nico, looked on to a boy who couldn't have been more than two or three years older than her. The third man she would later know as Percy, for his part, was looking at a man maybe his age or a few years younger.

The thing was, if she looked at them hard enough, she could see the resemblance, not in all of them, but knowing what she did know, she had to guess what it was that connected them. Now she wondered if the blonde she'd been traded for really was Jaime's girlfriend.

"Are you alright?" the boy almost her age asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she sat up. "I'm Rose," she presented herself.

"Charlie," he managed to smile, looking around. "You're not dressed like us, do you know what's happening? Do you know where we are?"

"Only part of it," she admitted. "Do you know how you got here, Charlie?"

"I was at the movies with some friends. I went to the bathroom in the middle of it, trying to hurry. Then I felt something," he showed the back of his neck and she looked. "Next thing, I was here, and my head was hurting."

"That's what happened to me, too," the twins' man spoke up. "Not the movie theater, but I was at the bank, walking out, and then," he pointed to his neck. "I'm Miles, by the way."

"Rose, Charlie," she introduced. Little by little, others spoke. Rose couldn't help but focus on the ones the prisoners had in their sights.

"I'm Maria," said the twins' woman. "I'd just moved in, my husband and I… He went to see about a key we were missing. I heard a sound, I thought it was him coming back."

"Alan," Percy's man slowly raised his hand. "I was waiting in the front of the shop, my girlfriend was trying on some clothes. Someone bumped into me."

"My name is Bianca," Deck's girl presented herself. "I was… I was at work," was all she would say, averting her eyes like she was ashamed.

"The thing is…" Rose had spoken after a while, knowing that all the while, as everyone said their part, the prisoners were listening in, "You're all not where you're meant to be, but… It's the time, too. What's the date?" she asked, to any of them. No one had bothered to tell them a thing.

"March 11th," Charlie shrugged.

"No, the year," Rose specified.

"Two thousand and fifty," he shrugged, which sparked some whispers, different numbers. Miles gave 2804, while Maria said 3323. Bianca said 3156, but Alan had 3201.

"It was 3105," another boy, who'd kept quiet before, added. Rose turned to him.

"What's your name? Where'd you come from?"

"I'm Felix… Felix Larsen," he told her, and she felt her jaw near to dropping. Why hadn't she seen it? "I was taking my sisters to school," he spoke slowly. "I believe you, you know?"

"You do?" Rose asked. "How come?"

"Because I saw my father earlier. You came in with him, only… he was younger then…"

"Norman Larsen, right?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Yes, starting to see it now?" Jaya cut in. "Nash and his big show?"

"What are you going to do with them?" Rose asked her, looking at the other guards.

"With them? Nothing. We're here to protect them."

"You are?" Felix asked.

"Say what you want about us, but family is family. No one is going to touch our blood," Deck vowed, showing the weapons he held in either hand.

"My friends back there, you know we're here to help, don't you? Everyone here has been put into this mess, for one reason or another. We should be doing something, together."

"And what kind of thing is that?" Nico asked.

"Stopping it."

"You mean stopping him," Ingrid pointed up to the cameras in full evidence.

"Well I can get on with that," Jaya smirked in a way that gave Rose chills.

"Right then, visitor. If you're here to help, as you say, then how's that?"

"The warden, he's trying to erase Jaime Grant. Right now." This was news. Sara's weapons whirred to life.

"Well we can't let that happen, can we?"

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	16. With So Many Cards In Hand

**"The Generational Purge"**

**16. With So Many Cards In Hand**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Chester Hinds was too busy looking around the ship that was bigger on the inside to notice his supposed ancestor observing him. Noah still had some difficulty believing that this guy could be related to him. They looked nothing alike, and he was… well… kind of a nerd. It wasn't that he wouldn't hope his children and his children's children would be smart and successful, but he was fifteen years old, what did he care about being a father yet?

"So… Chester," Noah spoke, and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the name again. The young man turned to him. "You work in a bookstore. That's… fun?"

"It is," Chester nodded. "I like stacking the shelves."

"Wow…" Noah groaned. "And that's why you took the job?"

"Well I needed another one, to pay for school."

"You're in college? How's that going?"

"Great," Chester volunteered, though he wasn't sure why he was being interrogated about this when here they were, on an actual alien space ship.

"You got any kids?" Noah moved right along, and Chester blanched.

"I'm twenty-three," was his answer.

"That hasn't stopped people," Noah shrugged. "Your family, how far back do the Hinds go? What else you got?"

"Noah," Jack spoke up, warning.

"Right, don't want to mess things up. What if I don't meet your great great whatever grandmother and then there's no Chester. Guess that assassin chick could go home right there."

"We need to stop her, don't we?" Chester asked the two of them.

"That's what I'm trying to do," Jack stared at his instruments, and then… a blip. "Looks like she's found her target. Hold on."

"Do what he says," Noah grabbed on to a rail, and Chester, blinking, hurried to do the same.

X

_New York City – July 15__th__ 2336_

Angela Hinds had given up believing she would ever get married. Up until two years ago, she was perpetually single, and she'd grown used to this life of hers. She didn't need anyone but herself. She had a good job, she didn't lack for anything, thanks to compensation after her roof had caved in during a storm, nearly killing her when she was in her mid-twenties. And then she'd met Tom. He'd turned things around for her so fast, and the year before, they had been married. Now here she was, at thirty-nine, thinking about something she had long abandoned: she wanted children. They had considered adoption, but she was still able to have them herself, so now this was what they were attempting. So far, they had been unsuccessful, and the longer it took, the more she could see Tom, like her, was starting to reconsider their options.

She would take their two dogs out on walks every morning before she had to go to work. Her routine was well known around the neighborhood, enough that it hadn't taken long for the woman with the turquoise hair to find how to get her isolated, so she could kill her and be done with it. She had followed her into the park, and it was early enough that there weren't so many people around. This was perfect, and now the assassin was reaching for the knife kept out of sight. As far as anyone knew, she was doing the same thing Angela Hinds was doing; she was taking a walk.

She wouldn't hear the sound of the TARDIS when it landed on the other side of the park. Jack, Noah, and Chester had emerged, and the last two, still not used to time travel, were momentarily stunned, seeing how this was definitely not the place or the time they were from.

"This is going to be harder than the last one," Jack noticed immediately as they stalked along the trees.

"Why?" Chester asked.

"The woman, she won't strike where bystanders could get hurt. Do you notice what is lacking here?"

"Bystanders," Noah guessed.

"All she needs to do is kill one of you, and now she'll have three to choose from," Jack went on.

"Look, I think that's her," Chester pointed, whispering.

"The assassin?" Noah turned.

"No, our descendant. She kind of looks like my mother but different," he indicated a woman walking two dogs through the park. "Hey, there's that girl," Chester's eyes trailed further along, finding the Japanese woman. Noah didn't wait to be told what to do. He jogged out toward the woman with the dogs.

"Noah!" Jack called after him, and now they didn't have a choice. "Come on," he grabbed Chester by the arm and pulled him along. Now they were all out in the open, and the assassin stopped for a moment, stunned to find the man with the ship, and her two failed targets, had once again found her. This time she didn't skulk away though. She had that smile, and she kept coming.

"I like your dogs, can I pet them?" Noah had come right up and crouched, scratching one dog's head. The second, noticing the attention and not wanting to be left out came along so Noah could scratch him, too.

"Well, you already are," Angela blinked, just as the other two came along. To Jack she gave a startled blink; he got that a lot. When she saw Chester, there was a pause in her, like she felt she knew him from somewhere. "Is this your son?" she asked the older man.

"Not exactly. Look, I wish there was another way to do this, but you're in danger right now." Angela gripped the two leashes and took a step back.

"What do you want?"

"We're not going to hurt you. But she will," Jack pointed back to the ever approaching assassin. "You need to come with us."

"No, I'm not going anywhere," Angela urged for her dogs to follow, moving past the men. "You come anywhere near me, I'm screaming."

"That's what I said, too," Chester tried to convince her. "But they're not kidding. My name's Chester Hinds," he called, and the woman stopped. "I was born February 12th 2091 in Topeka." She almost looked like she believed him, but she shook her head.

"This is some kind of sick game, just leave me alone!" she hurried off.

"Alright, I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this," Jack reached for a tube Noah had seen him slip in his pocket earlier. "You two, back to the TARDIS. Now!" Jack told Noah and Chester, seeing the assassin was almost on them. They didn't argue, and they took off running. At the same time, Jack had stuck the tube against the woman's back, and she was unconscious in a second, releasing the leashes. The dogs ran off, and Jack could only hope they wouldn't get themselves killed. For now, he slung the inert woman over his shoulder and turned to the assassin, just as she disappeared. She was calculating her options, he had to give her that.

The woman, still unnamed to them, was brought into the ship, where they found her a place to rest. "Maybe we should leave her like this," Noah frowned.

"We might not have a choice. We're not doing anything to convince her to trust us. And the assassin won't wait for us. She'll keep finding new targets."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	17. So Many Possibilities

**"The Generational Purge"**

**17. So Many Possibilities**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Sometimes Puck would think about the amount of money he had spent buying Slushies to actually drink, as opposed to ones he bought with the sole purpose of tossing them in people's faces. This time, the two he bought were for drinking, and even knowing this, Artie had flinched instinctively, seeing the other boy approaching with the two cups. Puck shook his head and handed him one.

"Grape, right?" he asked, and Artie nodded. Puck sat on the curb, next to Artie's chair, taking a first sip of his own cherry Slushie. "So…"

"We need to think about this. What do we know so far? About Gemma's time here, as Ginny Harrison…"

"She's been here, what, three times now?"

"Once in December, she taught home economics. Then last month, she had phys ed," Artie counted off.

"And now she's got English," Puck ended it.

"One each month, is that coincidence, or is there a reason?"

"She can't just come whenever she wants though, can she? I mean, she's posing as a substitute, so a teacher has to be out for her to… Hey, you don't think she's doing anything to the teachers so they'll be absent, do you?" Puck had a thought. Artie hadn't considered this, but now…

"I don't know. Someone would catch on to that, wouldn't they?"

"Like teachers need a big reason to stay away from us," Puck shrugged, drinking one large gulp and squeezing his eyes shut at the instant brain freeze. Artie glared, but then thought again.

"Whatever she's doing, she doesn't look like she's in much of a hurry, does she? All she's doing is teaching… then she goes away until she comes back again. Why wouldn't she be in a hurry, if something was happening?"

"Oh, she's in a hurry alright," Puck cut in. "Half the time I see her, she's in class, the other half, she's just running around."

"I mean, if it was something imminent, it wouldn't take two months, right?" Puck considered this, then turned back to Artie.

"What if it's aliens? What if there's aliens in disguise at school? They're pretending to be teachers, so she comes and replaces them until they can be wiped out and the real teachers can come back!" Puck was very proud of his theory. Artie was less impressed. "Okay, fine, you think of something."

"I don't know," Artie admitted. "I've been so busy trying to prove that she's who she says she is, I haven't really considered why she's here."

"Cafeteria food!" Puck was not without ideas.

"What about it?"

"Tastes like crap," Puck replied, and Artie stared at him.

"And?"

"I don't know, maybe someone put something in it. Maybe it's a teacher. Maybe it's a teacher, who's an alien," Puck was off again, and Artie squeezed his eyes shut. "Brain freeze?" Puck asked.

"Yeah, sure." After a moment of silence, Puck leaned against the wall behind him.

"I guess it wouldn't make sense. They would have done something by now if that was it, wouldn't they? Besides, the food's sucked for longer than two months."

"Right. So that's not it," Artie nodded.

"So we're back to square one."

"More like square minus three," Artie sighed.

"Maybe we could follow her one time, see where she goes. Like, does she just go back to the Doctor every afternoon after school's out? That would be weird, wouldn't it? She has to have a place here in Lima." Artie considered this. He did recall Sugar saying something about how Miss Harrison had told her that her apartment was getting fixed up.

"That might be more trouble than we need," Artie pointed out. "What if we get caught? You can't afford anything else going on your record, and I would not do well in prison."

"If you keep shooting down all my ideas, we're never going to get anywhere," Puck frowned.

"Well give me one that doesn't need shooting down and I'll leave it alone," Artie frowned back. They were quiet for a while, drinking their Slushies. "It just feels like something's going to happen. It has to, otherwise why would she be here?"

"She could have retired. They can't travel with the Doctor forever, can they? Maybe that's what she does now," Puck offered.

"A substitute teacher in Lima, Ohio?"

"Hey, you never know what floats people's boats."

"Then if that was it, why would she need to use a fake name?"

"How do you know Ginny Harrison is the fake name? Maybe that's her real name and Gemma Lucas was an alias."

"Fine, maybe. If that was the case, why, of all places, would she go and work at a school where someone knows who she is?" Artie pointed out.

"She's doing a fine job of denying it," Puck shrugged. "You know, you could try and bait her. Like, have so many things going on around her that she can't think about not answering to her real name, so when you call it, she'll turn, react, do something."

"That might work, I guess. I'm not convinced about this retirement thing though. Something is going to happen, that I don't doubt."

"So what are we going to do about it? Should we tell someone?" Puck asked.

"Tell someone that we think a substitute teacher is from another time and place and was dropped off here by an alien to go on repeat assignments at a school because something, maybe aliens, is going to happen eventually? Are you trying to get us sent to the psych ward? No one's going to believe us."

"I did," Puck reminded him.

"Because you've met the Doctor, too, you've been on the TARDIS."

"Yeah, exactly. If you and me had that happen to us, there have to be others, right? Anywhere in the world… You said you've been researching it, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Artie nodded.

"Then we can't give up. We'll find something. If she can be patient, then so can we."

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	18. The Architect of our Misery

**"The Generational Purge"**

**18. The Architect of our Misery**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Nathaniel Nash had very little for means of escape. The prison was locked down, as well it should have been, with this situation unfolding with the prisoners, and if it wasn't for all his guards being put out of order and some of the prisoners roaming the halls freely, he could have found a way out. He still intended to sneak away, when the opportunity would present itself, but there were some things keeping him at a standstill, in his office.

One was Beatrice Oshiro. She was out there. If she could just finish her job and come back, then he might have a better chance of getting this situation back in order.

Then there were the guards. If he could just turn one back on, he might have a shot. But this would require getting a hold of one helmet, one guard, and then to undo whatever it was that had been done to release them… and that required for him to leave his office, too.

His chance of escaping would be gone the moment those prisoners reached his office, and looking at his monitors, he knew this was what they were doing. He could see Grant and Larsen coming. Once they blocked the door, he'd be as good trapped. They had not yet finished installing the electrical field in the vents, it would be too volatile for him to attempt and crawl his way out through there, so the door was it. All or nothing.

He didn't have a choice, he had to try his luck. Grabbing the weapon he kept locked in his desk, he made sure there would be nothing in his office that they could reach, to make matters worse, and then he checked the monitors one last time, unlocked the door, opened and closed it again as soon as he was out. With any luck, they would believe he was still in there and guard an empty room. He was smarter than them on that, he was certain. He went the other way, turned a corner, and found himself face to face with a tall man he didn't know and two of his helmet-free guards.

"Good day, Warden," the stranger bowed his head. Nash raised his weapon and tried to shoot, but nothing happened. He looked down at his weapon. "Sorry, that won't work," the stranger told him, and Nash noticed a thin sort of stick with a light on the end in his hand.

"What's that?"

"Screwdriver," the stranger nodded.

"A what?"

Before he could get his answer, Nash heard a sound from behind and turned. Jaime Grant and Norman Larsen were there; he was surrounded. He tried his weapon again, but it still wouldn't work.

"Nice try," Jaime tugged on the weapon with one hand, swung his fist and knocked down the warden with the other. The man crumpled against the railings. "Let's get him back in there," Jaime told the others. Hari and Beth hesitated, still unsure as to what was happening, but sensing they needed to trust these people, they stepped up, helping Jaime to hoist up the man.

Nathaniel Nash was carried back into his office and sat on a chair. Thanks to the Doctor, they had gotten a hold of cuffs and tied the man down. He wasn't going to get away.

"Right, enough of this, time to have a conversation," the Doctor stepped up as the warden started coming to. He struggled against his restraints, but he was well aware there was no getting away, and no one would come to his assistance. "Hello again," the Doctor nodded.

"You're not supposed to be here," the warden observed.

"And yet I am," he pulled another chair to sit across from him. "You've been causing a lot of trouble, haven't you?"

"I am doing the work of justice," the warden sat up.

"Oh is that what you call it. Strange definition you've got there, Nash. Justice. Every man and woman has their own interpretation, don't they? Yours in particular worries me. They don't seem to like it all that much either," the Doctor indicated the guards and the prisoners. "These two you kidnapped from their own timelines, pulled them right out, blurred out who they were and turned them into your drones, unaware of what they were really here for."

"Why would you do that?" Beth asked him, looking like she wanted to jump on the warden. Hari kept her back, and she tried to calm herself down.

"And them. How long's it going to be before you purge them away? As I hear it, you're already trying with this one," the Doctor indicated Jaime. "My, you have been busy." He paused, bringing his chair closer. "Nikki Tomkins. Was she one of yours? Don't lie," he tapped at the side of his sonic screwdriver. The warden didn't know what it could or couldn't do, but he knew it could do impossible things like stop his weapon. He also didn't know what the Doctor would or wouldn't do. He was not a foolish man.

"She was selected as the root of the line, the first bad seed."

"She was twenty-two years old, an innocent girl you had your assassin kill, right outside her home, where her mother lives," the Doctor stared him down.

"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," the warden showed no remorse.

"No, but you do, warden, is that it?" the Doctor stood, helping the man out of the chair, still restrained. "So why don't you inform me?" Jaime Grant was starting to see why Jack trusted this man, why he brought him. He stepped up, staring at Nash.

"Yes, Warden. Why don't you show the Doctor what you've been doing to us."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	19. Playing With Fate

**"The Generational Purge"**

**19. Playing With Fate**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

As much as they wanted to hear everything, the Doctor had convinced Jaime and the others to stay outside and keep watch while he spoke with the warden. It had not been so easy to convince him, but he knew he was surrounded, just as he knew that he needed to get to this place either way; he might as well have people around him who were making sure he would get to get there and say what they wanted him to say. He would talk, he had no concerns over that. Once he had the upper hand again, he could deal with them, and his secret would once again be safe. He could get back to his justice.

In the cold room where he had performed his treatments, the warden showed where his instruments were. He was once again restrained to a chair, the very chair where Jonathan Bailey had sat, until the moment there was no longer a Jonathan Bailey in the world.

"This isn't how you purge them, of course, no, you've got your man in the field for that," the Doctor examined everything. The warden said nothing for a moment.

"Yes, I suppose you could call it that."

"But you have to find them first, don't you? And you have to send your man to them, through time, through space," he looked around the room before continuing his inspection.

"Yes," the warden confirmed once more.

"Kill one, and then the rest fall. How many times have you done it?"

"Six have been purged."

"Six?" the Doctor turned, with a smile the warden did not find at all amused. "Six, is that all? Oh, Nathaniel, no. You've not purged six, you've purged so, so many more. You've murdered six people, and you took with them the lives and the possibilities of… tens, hundreds, thousands. You've damaged time. All those people you considered unimportant enough to wipe away like a spot of dirt on your precious justice, they mattered. Even if all they did in their lives was to work in one corner of a small place, never famous, never noticed, they did matter. They existed, and they changed other people. Maybe they considered themselves insignificant, but Nathaniel, there is no such thing. Even you, here, playing judge, jury, and executioner, I regret to say, you matter."

"Who are you?" the warden asked. "What's your name?"

"What are you going to do, purge me? I'd like to see you try," the Doctor scoffed. "Tell me how it works." The warden took his time, like believed he really did have the upper hand. "How did you get it?"

"Part of it was mine," he finally spoke, shrugging. "The displacement technology was mine."

"And in hands such as yours, this is what you chose to do with it?"

"Not at first," Nathaniel continued to speak the words of one empowered. "But I happened on this other technology," he nodded to what the Doctor had been observing.

"How does one 'happen on' something like that? Is someone out there missing it?"

"Out there, no." The Doctor looked back to him, understanding.

"One of your prisoners had it."

"Oh, he's not a prisoner," the warden explained. "Well, he is, as far as anyone else knows. I had to keep him where I could keep an eye on him, didn't I? I couldn't purge him, how would I have gotten this? And what if I still needed him? No, here he will be right where I need him to be. And he can see just what this technology can do."

"Which is what, exactly?"

"It finds people," Warden Nash replied. "It's particularly handy in tracking a blood line. You can research records all you like, it will only do so much in the matter of finding exactly who you need, when you need, where they are. This man, he acquired it, I'm not certain how. But he got a hold of it, modified it, and when I discovered this…" The Doctor turned back to the object, staring at it, thinking.

"Right, of course…" he told himself, turning a smile back to the warden. "You know, I've got something funny to tell you, only… Oh, why not build up a bit of anticipation. You'll appreciate it, you'll see."

"You think you're funny, don't you?" the warden was unimpressed once again.

"I suppose I do," the Doctor shrugged. "Right, that's what I needed to know. Now you, Nathaniel, get to stay here, under the protection of your very own prisoners and hostages," he tapped the man's shoulders. "I wouldn't anger them if I were you."

Somewhere in this prison, there was an innocent man, a whole other kind of prisoner. Whoever he was, he knew he'd have to find him. It might have been his shot of fixing as much of if not all of the damage Nathaniel Nash and his assassin had done. Rose was still in the hands of some of these other prisoners, the one who'd been put here for the crimes they had actually committed, and the sooner he could get her out of that situation, the better. He had to trust she would be alright, but no matter what he did, it always came back to how close they'd come to losing her before. He found himself thinking about Jackie, and about Nikki's mother, back at the estate.

But now he knew for certain that this threat against Jaime Grant was real. From what little time he'd spent with the warden, he could believe that he would carry out these 'treatments' in a so-called official capacity. Only a man like Nash wouldn't necessarily stop there. He might decide to take his justice in hand and wipe someone out of existence because he'd decided it, with no one's approval. Jaime Grant was a rogue expedition in purging. All the Doctor could hope was that Jack and the TARDIS would find some way of intervening.

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	20. It All Comes Back To You

**"The Generational Purge"**

**20. It All Comes Back To You**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Together, Jack, Noah, and Chester Hinds had secured two more targets. While Angela Hinds slept on inside the TARDIS, they had located the assassin as she attempted to eliminate a twenty-eight-year-old man named Jeremy Holt in the year 2581, and a twenty-four year old woman they had to guess was his daughter, an Anita Holt in the year 2603.

Jeremy Holt was a teacher. When the assassin had come looking for him, he was in the middle of a class. The group looked to be about Noah's age so, against Jack's judgment but backed up by Chester, the boy had gone about luring the man away. They had learned from their encounter with Angela Hinds and, rather than trying to explain everything, they had knocked him out and taken him away. They couldn't keep letting their group get bigger and bigger, but they couldn't leave him behind either.

Jack knew of a place where they could stash him, a hospital where he knew some people. He was still explaining his plan to the others when they had found the assassin had hardly skipped a beat and already had her next target in her sights. So they had gone straight after this one and this was how they had also acquired Anita Holt.

She was a waitress in a busy lunch time rush. The place was so packed that Jack worried about bringing Noah and Chester along. One moment of inattention and the assassin could have slipped in, killing either one of those two, and then nothing else would matter. But showing a stubbornness Jack decided must have been inherent to their genes, they had refused, insisting to come. So in they'd gone, and Noah had asked if, while they were here, they could grab lunch. There was no time. The telltale turquoise head was spotted, and as soon as they'd found the target and isolated her in the back room, she'd also been sedated, and they had carried her away back to the TARDIS. With any hope, it would take the assassin a little while longer to realize her girl was already gone.

So now here they were, with father and daughter unconscious on the ship, and Jack took them off to the hospital, where his friends would be able to induce a state where Jeremy and Anita's vitals would be low enough that they were still alive, but hopefully would keep them from registering, keep them from being located by the assassin. Jack had not even had the time to consider doing the same to the others that Noah had proclaimed he wasn't putting him in any coma, and Chester had given the same.

Back in the TARDIS, once again on their own, Jack had managed to get them all some food and, while all was quiet, no blips to be heard, they ate. Jack knew this couldn't go on forever. At some point, they had to face this woman, to stop her from going after any more of them, whether it was in Jaime's line or anyone else's.

It couldn't go on forever for Noah either.

Jack could see him sitting there, picking at his lunch half-heartedly. There was something in his face, in his whole posture, that told Jack there was something going on in his head, and he couldn't just leave it alone. He stood, walking over to sit across from him. Noah briefly acknowledged his presence, but he said nothing.

"It's okay if you're freaked out," Jack told him.

"I'm not," Noah defended himself.

"I'd be freaked out, too, if I was in your place," Jack tried to engage him again.

"That Anita girl, I don't know, she kind of reminded me of my sister a bit. I keep forgetting, all these people are there because of me. They're my family." He paused. "My father's gone. He left me and my mother and my little sister." He hesitated, shrugging to himself. "I don't want to be like him. Your friend, the one they're trying to get at through me, he's in prison, right? What did he do?"

"Jaime's a good guy," Jack told him. "He's made some mistakes, but at heart…"

"What does that even mean, at heart?"

"You're not a bad person just because he's in prison," Jack promised him.

"But that's what they think, isn't it? The one who sent that chick after me? If he's bad, then I have to be bad, too, right? Like how my father left. What's to say I'll do any better?"

"You do. You can't be a bad guy and worry that you'll be bad, you know?"

"I get in trouble a lot."

"Hey, I could shock you, the things I've gotten myself into," Jack gave him a pointed look. "You're fifteen years old, Noah. You've got your whole life to make choices. Sure, maybe some of them will be bad. Who out of all of us hasn't made some bad decisions along the way? You'll make some good ones after. You might never have known about all of this if that woman hadn't come after you. So you know what you do? You use it. You do what you can, you live your life, for people like him," Jack indicated Chester. "More importantly, you do it for yourself." Noah considered this, looking at the man sitting across from him, and finally he nodded.

"This stays between us, right? I don't need anyone looking at me like I need their pity," he gave Jack a look, and the man bowed his head, offering his hand. Noah shook it.

"Sorry, hey," Chester spoke from across the way. Jack and Noah looked at him. He was pointing to the controls, and now that they'd stopped talking, they heard it too: they had another blip.

"Right, lunch break's over, looks like she's found another one." After quickly gathering their lunch things and tossing them outside in a nearby trash can, Jack, Noah, and Chester were back inside the TARDIS, back in pursuit of the warden's assassin.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	21. Everybody Wants Something

**"The Generational Purge"**

**21. Everybody Wants Something**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Walking out of the 'treatment room,' the Doctor was informed that they had visitors on the way, which he understood to mean the prisoners, their guard hostages, and Rose, were heading up this way.

"Keep watch here," he told the four. "Don't kill him. Or hurt him."

"What if he tries to get away?" Jaime shrugged.

"Don't kill him. Or hurt him," the Doctor repeated before moving off. It wasn't long that he'd come across the other pack. There were more of them than there were of those he'd left to watch Nash, and in the time since he'd been away from them, both the prisoners and their 'guards' seemed to have struck up some kind of understanding. They were all of a same mind when it came to Nash. The fact that they at least didn't stop Rose from returning to his side was as good of a sign as he could get. It didn't change their intentions.

"Everything alright?" Rose would ask him, just as relieved to see him again.

"That's debatable," the Doctor told her before looking to the others, crowded in the small corridor. "Hello again," he nodded.

"Where's Nash?" Deck Vicario asked.

"Restrained. He's not getting away."

"We want to see him," Ingrid Allaway declared.

"And when you do see him, you will…" the Doctor gave them a look.

"Are you on his side or ours?" Jaya Misra asked.

"If you believe I'm on his side, you need to re-evaluate a thing or two. But we will get nothing from you all killing him."

"Oh, we don't have to kill him… Not right away," Jaya assured him.

"You know I can't let you do that."

"You know what he's done," Deck gripped the weapon in his hand.

"It's barbaric," Ingrid declared.

"That it is. But there is also the matter of this assassin, who is presently out there, doing his work. She must be our priority. Until she is located, until she is stopped, all we can do is wait. Nathaniel Nash will be punished for his actions, I'm giving you my word. All I'm asking is for you to be patient."

"We want to go home," one of the guards spoke from the back of the pack, and the others voiced their agreement.

"We will get you there. If necessary, I'll take you there myself… provided my ship returns," he spoke at a half voice. "Until then, please, wait." There was a moment when none of them spoke, and the Doctor would look at all of them, wondering if any of them was about to leap forward, carrying all the others in riotous unity. Jaya raised her hand and, slowly, the group retreated, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone.

"They're angry," Rose sighed. "They have a right to be."

"I know," the Doctor looked to her. "Tell me about them?"

"All the guards, they're upset, but none of them looks like they're… trying to be a hero," she explained. "They mostly follow what the prisoners say."

"And what about them, who's the hero?"

"You saw it. Took me a while to get all their names straight. The man who spoke, that was Deck Vicario, and the twin, that was Ingrid Allaway, and then the Indian one, her name's Jaya Misra. The other two seem to be letting her call the shots. The other three, the other twin, Sara, and the other men, Nico Reyes and Percy Hackett, they're in between."

"You didn't happen to hear anything about a prisoner that's not like the others?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"The warden's been using a piece of technology he acquired through one of his prisoners. Only he's not really a prisoner, he's more of a hostage."

"Like the guards?" Rose wondered.

"Sure, except for the helmet."

"I didn't hear anything about that," she shook her head. "Sorry."

"Well if you do, listen good?"

"Got it," she promised. "Now what do we do? They're not going to be patient forever, you know?"

"I do. We just hope it's long enough."

X

Jaime could see Norman looking at the door, staring at it, and he wondered what was going through his mind. He looked like he really wanted to go through that door, where they were keeping the warden, Then he'd bow his head, let out a breath, and stare down the corridor. He would repeat the motion again and again. He knew, of all people, Norman wouldn't do anything. Out of all of them, he could easily be the calmest and most soft-spoken out of all of the prisoners of Orcus. He wouldn't go after Nash.

Though he wouldn't go, he certainly had enough reasons to want Nathaniel Nash dead.

The warden had stolen his life, from the day he had first visited him. Within days, Norman had found himself removed from his home, only to wake up in isolation at Orcus. When he'd been told why he was there, and what would happen if he told anyone, his true isolation had begun.

He might have been given his own cell, living among imprisoned criminals, but everything had become a lie. Nash had invented him a history, turning a family man into a scourge.

Worst of all, not only did Nash make sure he knew what his work was being used for, but he had to live with the results. He had tried to kill himself, a few times now, but it was as though Nash refused him death. He would always be there, to watch, until finally either old age would take him, or he would have purged every last one of those prisoners, and then he would really be alone.

No, there was worse than this. Worse was seeing what would one day be his own son, a helmet on his head and darkness in his eyes.

He wanted Nathaniel Nash dead. But he couldn't make himself kill him.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	22. Prisoner is the Guard is the Prisoner

**"The Generational Purge"**

**22. The Prisoner is the Guard is the Prisoner**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Beth was trying not to think about some things. She tried not to think about how long she might have been in this place, what they would have had her do… They'd explained some of it, to her and the others, while they were all at together down there earlier, but it was still just a little too difficult to grasp. She believed it now, she did… The evidence was there enough that she didn't exactly have a choice but to believe. But it was all those questions. Had it been days? Weeks? Months? She still felt herself, it couldn't have been years. What about her life back home? Would people know she was missing by now? Would they be looking for her? What about her mother?

She'd been looking at him, at this man who'd introduced himself as Jaime Grant. He looked to be somewhere in his early to mid-thirties, dark hair, strong, but it was his eyes that kept her looking. She tried not to, but it was sort of amazing to her, seeing him there, knowing who he was to her. He'd already caught her looking, but he said nothing. Maybe he didn't want her asking him questions, but she couldn't help herself. There were things she knew.

"You and I, we're related, aren't we?" Beth finally asked Jaime. He hesitated, but then he nodded. "You look just like my father," she admitted with a smile. "My birth father, I mean… I was adopted when I was a baby," she explained. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be telling him these things or not, with this… I guess she could call it a time difference… In this case though, she didn't have much of a choice.

"I didn't know that," he finally spoke.

"What's the year again?"

"3086," Jaime told her, and she closed her eyes. "When were you born?"

"2010." She took a moment, stepped toward him. "That's who they're going after, you know? My birth father." Jaime blinked.

"How do you know that?"

"I heard them talking about it, the man and the woman."

"Woman?" Jaime asked her.

"It's… it's still sort of hard to remember," she explained.

"You're remembering?"

"Yes… I remember you were always kind to me," Beth told him, and he gave a small smile. "But I heard them talk, I think… I think that might have been the one who's going out there to kill them."

"I always just thought it was a man, with Nash and all," Jaime admitted.

"If she kills him before I was born… My parents were young when they had me, that's why they gave me away," she went on. Now Jaime imagined the young boy, and he felt a sort of pain in his chest like guilt. "If she kills him, then I won't ever have been born, will I?"

"And neither will I, or anyone else, your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, all the way to me." Beth shivered. "They're not going to let it happen," he promised her. "They'll protect him. A friend of mine, he came here to do that. He's out there now, maybe he's with your father, looking after him."

"Do you think he is?"

"I don't know," Jaime admitted. "The ship he was on, apparently it just took off with him inside, and…"

"Ship?" Beth repeated; she didn't know anything about this.

"It's a long story," Jaime told her, looking back to the closed door.

He wouldn't be above killing Nathaniel Nash. He had never taken a life before, nor did he really have the intention to. But this one would have earned his death, after everything he'd done. Even with the Doctor's warning, he doubted any of the others would stop him from slipping through that door and slicing the life out of him. He would get no pleasure out of it, but…

"Jaime?" Beth spoke all of a sudden, and he turned to her, finding her pointing down the corridor. "There's someone there watching us."

"Prisoner or guard?" he came up to see.

"Neither," Beth shook her head.

"Norman, Hari, watch the door, don't let anyone through," Jaime told them before taking off running. Beth followed him. He'd seen it now, seen her. She was wearing some kind of robe, but he was sure it was a woman. Had the assassin returned? Both he and Beth were still there though, so maybe she hadn't managed to kill his ancestor yet?

The moment she'd seen them coming, the woman in the robe had run away, and now the chase was on. Whoever she was, she was fast. Even when she would briefly look over her shoulder, to see how far away they were, she wouldn't slow down, wouldn't fall. Jaime thought he saw a flash of brown hair.

Jaime and Beth chased after the intruder for a few minutes before they finally thought they got a break. Jaime had shouted after her just as she turned, and then she fell, rolled over herself, and he thought he heard her cry out in pain. She stood again, and he could tell she must have twisted her ankle. They could catch up to her, they could… Only just in time, she'd managed to open a door, get inside, and lock the door again. The lock had barely clicked when Jaime came up, banging on the door in frustration. Beth stopped behind him, and he motioned for her to stay quiet. He listened in, and he could hear some whimpering. She was still in there; that was good. They had her.

"Come out of there now and we might not hurt you. But if we have to come in there after you, I can't promise you a single thing, do you understand?" She didn't speak. Even her whimpering had ceased. She knew she was cornered.

"What do we do now?" Beth asked him. He hadn't even realized she'd come after him, but now he was glad.

"Go and find the Doctor, tell him what happened, tell him we may have caught the assassin."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	23. This Little Life Is Yours

**"The Generational Purge"**

**23. This Little Life Is Yours**

_Chicago, Illinois – December 4__th__ 2862_

Caroline Sheffield had waited all year for snow. Her family had only just moved here, and in her old town, they didn't have snow at all, so she had never seen it. Then a miracle happened. The first snow came, on this day, on her seventh birthday. She knew then, it was just for her.

She had her new boots, her warm jacket and her mittens, and the hat her grandmother had made for her, and she stood there, looking at the sky, letting the small flakes melt on her face, her cheeks flushed with the cold. All she saw was the snow.

What she didn't see was a woman with long turquoise hair, watching her from a not too distant place. Her feet were planted on the ground with its light coat of snow. Even in the afternoon light, her eyes were half obscured by her sunglasses. If anyone were to see her eyes, for the first time that day, they might have seen doubt. She didn't choose the time she was taken to in her targets' lives. She only came and found them and, unless someone stopped her, like today, then she would do what she had to do.

But here was this girl, the very picture of innocence, and no matter how hard she tried, her feet would not move, the knife would not be touched.

Her ears twitched at the sound of approaching feet, and she looked over her shoulder to find, as always, the trio who had been thwarting her attempts all day. They'd seen the girl, too, and their eyes had filled with so much determination: she was not going to be hurting the child so long as they were around, that was what their eyes said.

She should have lunged for one of those two, the boy who'd been her first intended target, or the one she'd gone after when they'd gotten away. It would have been easy. But there was the child, the girl who'd frozen her there on her feet. She would see it.

Then Beatrice Oshiro said something, and it surprised her most of all.

"Go on," she told the man. "Take her." He hesitated, staring at her. "I won't give you another one," she warned before turning and walking away. A moment later, she'd disappeared.

"What just happened?" Noah had barely had the time to ask when Chester tapped him on the shoulder. They turned back to find Caroline Sheffield standing there, staring at them. She looked as frightened as one should be expected to be, at her age, seeing a woman disappear into thin air. When neither of them moved, Chester Hinds took it upon himself to speak to her. He stepped up, and the girl braced herself.

"It's alright, we won't hurt you," he held out his hands, showing them empty. He crouched down to get at eye level with her. "My name's Chester. This is Noah, and that's Jack." The other two waved, showing themselves as non-threatening as could be.

"Hello," the girl finally spoke.

"What's your name?"

"Caroline," she told them.

"What do we do?" Noah asked Jack, keeping his voice down, while Chester complimented the girl on her hat, which got him the whole long story of its creation. "We can't just take her. I mean isn't that kind of like kidnapping?"

"The same could be said about you," Jack pointed out. "But I think we don't have a choice."

"Why?"

"Why hasn't the assassin just gone to find you in another time and just killed you then?"

"Hey!" Noah frowned.

"You know what I mean. I don't think she can, not as long as you're with me."

"How'd you figure that?"

"Just… I can't explain it, I just know it."

"Fine, but it's still kidnapping," Noah reminded him.

"When this is all over, we can bring her right back here, they won't even know she was gone. You're the one who started us taking everyone along."

"Yeah, but…"

"Can I see your ship?" The small voice drew their attention, and they looked to find a curious Caroline standing by their side, while Chester had a proud I-did-something look on his face.

"Alright, but let's make it quick," Jack told her, both scolding and thanking the girl's parents for not having her watched. As they made their way back to the TARDIS, Noah had to ask.

"How many more is she going to go after? Can't she just give up? She let the little girl go, so she can't be completely unreasonable, right?"

"She'll go until she's done what she has to do and that's that. You can't forget what she tried to do, what she's still trying to do. She's done this before, and she'll do it again if she's asked."

They made it to the TARDIS, and just as they were approaching, Jack swore he could feel something was off. It was the tracks in the snow leading away from the ship. He counted them off and where there should have been three, there were four.

"Oh no," he understood right away what had happened.

"What?" Noah asked, while Jack ran up to get the door opened. The three distant relatives followed him, but he'd already gone to the small area where they had rested the sedated Angela Hinds. She was gone. "Jack, what is it?"

"It's Angela. She must have woken up and slipped out." Caroline was the only one not bothered by this statement. She was too busy looking around at the ship that was bigger on the inside.

"We should have left her with the other two. Why didn't we do that?" Noah groaned.

"I don't know, but we need to find her. If she dies out there, then it won't matter that the assassin didn't get her. Noah, you stay here with the girl."

"I can help!" Noah protested.

"This is not the time to argue, now stay here, understand?" Jack told him. There was no point in arguing again, so he nodded, watching Jack and Chester head back into the light snow, while he remained on the TARDIS with his descendent of many centuries.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	24. Stuck in Fly Paper

**"The Generational Purge"**

**24. Stuck in Fly Paper**

_Orcus Penitentiary, in the year 3086_

This was not how it was supposed to happen. She'd been distracted maybe, for all of two seconds, and then she'd been spotted. She couldn't just disappear in front of them, so she did the only thing she could do: she ran. She had walked along this corridor a few times already since this day had begun, and no one had ever seen her. She would have thought for sure she would have stood out like a sore thumb in this robe, but this was the only she had to make sure no one saw her face.

In all these jumps she'd done, she had always taken care of retaining all the information she could as she went forward, in case she needed to go backward. This would prove very useful at this time. She needed a place to hide so she could use the vortex manipulator and get out of there.

Only then she'd been startled, something, she wasn't sure, but the next she knew, she fell, and she felt something turn, and then her whole brain screamed with pain. It was her ankle. Was it sprained, broken? She didn't have time to stop and think, she had to get up. There was a door right next to her, she could lock it, she could leave. So with some amount of difficulty, that was what she'd done. As soon as the door was locked, she had collapsed right back to the ground. The shock of the injury had her heart racing as much as the chase had. She was trying to collect herself, she had to.

The thumping on the door startled her again, and she tried to be quiet.

"Come out of there now and we might not hurt you. But if we have to come in there after you, I can't promise you a single thing, do you understand?" the voice outside said.

Gemma held her breath, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried not to whimper, her ankle throbbing with pain. Her hand was shaking, but she reached to press on the cuff.

Nothing happened.

She didn't want to panic, but how could she not? She was hurt, trapped, and her only way out was not working. She tried it again, but there was no use. It was as though something was blocking her from leaving. Was this part of the prison lockdown? No way out?

The Doctor couldn't know she was here, not now, not like this. There had to be another way out. If that was always how events were supposed to unfold, then there had to be a way for her to escape.

X

A few of the guards had gone out seeking the Doctor and Rose, knowing they were the ones who were supposed to help them leave. Felix Larsen and Maria Porter were all good and willing to do as Jaya, Deck, and Ingrid said, but they also had to know, for the others. The Doctor was telling them just as he'd told them before, that they had to wait, when Beth came running.

"Doctor! Doctor, you have to come!" she called out.

"What is it, what's happened? Is it the warden?" he asked.

"No," Beth shook her head, out of breath. "There's someone here, someone new, an… an intruder. We think it might be the assassin."

"Where is he?" the Doctor asked.

"She," Beth shook her head. "The assassin is a woman. We've got her trapped. She fell and hurt her foot or her ankle, then she locked herself into a room back there," she pointed.

"Go on, lead the way," the Doctor nodded. "You two, get back to the others," he told Felix and Maria before heading off with Rose after Beth.

"Do you think they really have her?" Felix watched them go.

"I don't know, but I think I should go after them in case they need help. You go back to the others," she ran off.

"Maria, wait!" he called, but she was already gone.

When they got back to the door, Jaime was still banging on it, trying to make the intruder open up.

"Has that worked yet?" the Doctor stopped him. "You, do you have a key of some kind?" he turned to Beth.

"Oh, I… I don't know," she blinked, looking down at herself, fidgeting with her belt. "This?" she found a card clipped there, and she unclipped it, giving it to the Doctor. He tried it, but it didn't respond.

"Underwhelming. Let's try this," he tried the sonic screwdriver. "I'm not having the best go with doors today, am I? First the TARDIS, and now…" he tapped at the screwdriver. "What's the matter with you?"

X

Inside the room, Gemma tried as best she could to hold the small device pointed at the door without her hand shaking too much. It had been a gift from the Doctor before she went on her way and it was supposed to block whatever the sonic screwdriver did. It was only meant to be used in emergencies and she'd never had to use it before, so she wasn't sure it would even work, but now she saw it apparently did. For how long, she didn't know, and she hoped she wouldn't have to find out. She was particularly concerned with the other door on the other side of the room, hoping they wouldn't think about trying to come in through that one, she only had so many ways of stopping them…

But that door did open then, and she felt for sure she was done for, right then and there.

A woman came in, and she closed and locked the door again as soon as she did. She was wearing a guard's uniform. "Are you Gemma Lucas?" she asked.

"I… W-Who are you?" Gemma asked before answering.

"I can't believe you're really here, it's been so long I've been waiting for this, I didn't know it was going to be here, and now, I… Sorry, I mean… My name is Maria Porter. I have a message from the Doctor."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	25. A Key in Pocket

**"The Generational Purge"**

**25. A Key In Pocket**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

It took Gemma a few seconds to really process what the woman told her. Did she mean this Doctor, the one trying to open the door, or her Doctor?

"I-I don't…" she sputtered, looking back to make sure her anti-sonic was still doing its job.

"I only just figured out this was the moment earlier, I didn't think you would actually be here."

"Maria, is it?" Gemma breathed. "I don't have much time," she reminded her, so the woman explained.

"One day, it must have been a week before I was brought here, someone sent me a note. I thought it was a prank, but then I read it. This person, they signed as 'the Doctor,' said I was going to run into a man who also called himself that, but that I wasn't to tell him about any of this. The note said that this other Doctor would be called away from me and I would be sent away, and when that happened, I had to come here."

"And you believed it?" Gemma had to ask.

"Somehow they knew these things about me," Maria revealed. _Ha, yes, I see now. I will have told the Doctor._ "They knew about how I broke a neighbor's lamp when I fourteen. They had gone on vacation for two weeks and asked me to look after their home. I picked up as many little jobs as I could so I could earn the money and replace the lamp. They never knew about it, no one did."

"What else did the note say?"

"It said that, when the time came, I should come here and give you a code. It said I had to memorize it because I wouldn't have it on me at the time. Good thing I'm good with numbers," Maria smiled.

"A code…" Gemma looked down to the cuff on her arm and she had to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Maria looked confused.

"I wish I had the time to explain it to you. But once you've given me the code, you'll need to get out of here, go back to doing whatever it was you're doing. The Doctor can't know about you helping me, and you won't be seeing me again… hopefully." Having to talk to Maria, at least, she hadn't been focused on her ankle, or the chance of getting caught, and it helped her to concentrate again.

"What's your name?" Maria asked.

"It's better if you don't know. Now what's the code?"

Maria would repeat it five times, making sure that she would remember it, then she stood and went to the second door. "Good luck," she told the stranger on the ground.

"Thank you, Maria," Gemma breathed. "You need to go now," she smiled, and Maria bowed her head, opening the door and shutting it behind her.

She'd have to put the anti-sonic away to enter the code, and if that took too long, then it would give the Doctor on the other side of the door the chance to finally break in. There was no margin for error. The Doctor, her Doctor, had found a way to send Maria Porter to her, and she wasn't going to let that go to waste. She had to figure that, to have been able to give the information to ensure Maria's collaboration, she had to have gotten out just fine, but there was still some element of stress. Her heart was beating mad again, and she took a few deep breaths.

"Pocket, code, gone," she told herself. In one swift move, the anti-sonic was slipped back into her pocket, she entered the code, and shutting her eyes, she hoped this would work.

X

They'd all been trying to break through the door one way or the other. Could they get a saw? The door wouldn't even be dented. Could the trip the mechanism? With the warden's upgrades, it was more likely they would get themselves a solid shock. Stubbornly, or possibly just trying to understand why it wasn't working, the Doctor kept at his one move, which was to use his sonic screwdriver.

"Are we even sure the assassin is still in there?" Rose asked. "She could get in, she could get out."

"She can't. If she could, she wouldn't have run, would she?" Jaime pointed out.

"Who knows why anyone does anything?" the Doctor wasn't convinced.

The moment things changed, he felt it like there had been resistance under his hand and it had finally released.

"Ah, well we may not have to wait for much longer." At the click of the door, he reached to pull it open.

He would only catch a glimpse of the tail end of someone transporting out, but it stopped him where he stood. It was all too familiar, it reminded him of… Mesphoria, the shimmer.

"The assassin, she's gone," Beth saw into the empty room.

"That wasn't the assassin," the Doctor told her, but he was looking back to Rose. He couldn't go into it with all of them there, but he would have to tell Rose later. The woman they'd chased had nothing to do with the prison, the warden, the treatments, none of it. The woman had to do with him. Someone was following him.

"Did you get the intruder?" Everyone turned, momentarily back on alert, but they relaxed when they saw it was only one of the guards.

"I told you to go back to the others," the Doctor told Maria.

"I'm sorry, I thought I could help," the woman explained, out of breath.

"Well there's nothing left to help. The intruder escaped," Jaime told her.

"What do we do now?" Beth asked.

"I need to talk to the warden again," the Doctor started back for his office.

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	26. It's Been in the Books

**"The Generational Purge"**

**26. It's Been In The Books**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

When she'd felt herself leave the prison floor, she'd been flooded with so much relief before the usual pull of the vortex manipulator. The next moment, she was on the ground in her small apartment back in the past, in Lima, and for some time she just laid there, breathing deep. She'd never been so out of control since this whole thing had started. She'd been afraid not only about getting caught, but about everything she'd done in the past few months being all for nothing. They still had so much to do before this was over, and she didn't know what all of it was, which could be frustrating, but she knew it needed to happen.

Her ankle was still throbbing, and she knew for as much as she'd managed to power through after Maria had come along, the fall was not something that would go away with a hot bath and staying off her foot for the night. She had to get it checked out, had to go to the hospital. She wasn't worried about her identity checking out. The Doctor had done a good job on that, the whole thing would check out. She had to get herself over there and, first and foremost, she had to get the robe, the vortex manipulator, the anti-sonic, all her things, back in their hiding place.

Pulling herself back standing had been as unpleasant as she'd anticipated it to be. But eventually, she could get her other bag, the one with Ginny Harrison's cards and everything else, and make her way out. One of her neighbors had seen her go along the hall and hurried to help her, offering her a ride to the hospital. Gemma insisted that she would be fine taking a cab. She couldn't become too present in people's lives beyond McKinley High. One day, all this would be over, and she would go back, to the Doctor, to her own time and place, she wasn't sure yet.

They would x-ray her foot. As she sat there, waiting for it to be done, it finally dawned on her what this fall could mean for the rest of her work here. If they gave her crutches, anything of the sort, what good would she be? Already, she couldn't be sure if the Doctor, the one she'd been looking in on, would have come to realize she'd been there, and when she'd have to look on any of them again, what was she going to do, camouflage her crutches under her robe? It wasn't going to be much longer before she was done with this present tour at McKinley. So far, each one of these had been followed by a month's wait. At the very least, she could count on that to rest her foot. _Good thing I have a lot of books to keep myself busy._

She thought about Maria Porter. She was going to have to remember that story about her and the lamp, to tell the Doctor, to make sure Maria got her note before the warden took her and put that helmet on her head.

For everything she had experienced in her lifetime when it came to the Doctor, and there had been plenty, this kind of thing still gave her something of a headache. Maria Porter had been convinced to deliver this message to her because of personal information no one would have known but her, but this information had only been acquired because Maria had told her what the note said, which enabled her to pass that on… That was just how it was, and trying to sort it out would get her nothing except maybe a bigger headache. She didn't need one of those.

The Doctor knew more about this than she did, that much she'd realized from the start, and when she'd agreed to do this, Gemma had also accepted that this was just how it was going to be, but the deeper in she got, the harder it became for her to simply accept it. What little input she got came in the form of new boxes of books. For a while she'd thought maybe there was supposed to be a connection with the selection of books she was sent and the tasks she would have to perform, but that theory had been eliminated almost as soon as it had been thought up.

For now, she could only go home and rest up for her next day back at McKinley. She could get by with one crutch, which she would begrudge for a while, and if she was careful enough, in a few weeks' time, she would be alright again. _I can't get caught again._

Sitting up on her bed, which served as bed and couch, she remembered she had a pile of exercises to look through for the English class she was subbing, and she scrunched her nose at it for a moment before relenting and picking it up, finding her pen.

The one on top of the pile was Noah Puckerman's, and it reminded her now, not only would she be crutching her way along, but she'd also have to keep looking out for those two boys. Did they really think she had no idea they were spying on her? The best way she figured there was, to get them off her case, was to just wait it out. If she kept as she'd been doing, ignoring their games, maybe they would get bored and let it go. It didn't help that her presence was split up as it was. They probably forgot it every time she went away, only then she would come back, and it would be like someone throwing one more log on the fire, reviving the flame to burn again.

It would make things so much easier if she could tell them, but the Doctor was very specific on this. No telling. She would live as Ginny Harrison alone, until she didn't have to.

Speaking of Ginny Harrison, she was going to have to come up with a cause for her injury.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	27. Blood of my Blood

**"The Generational Purge"**

**27. Blood of my Blood**

_Chicago, Illinois – December 4__th__ 2862_

There was no way of knowing how far Angela Hinds had gotten, or what she must have thought when she woke up inside the TARDIS. They hadn't meant for things to turn out the way they had with her. They knew her life had been in danger, they knew what would have happened to her if they hadn't been there, but as of yet they hadn't convinced her, and they doubted they would be making any strides there, now that she probably thought they were the ones who were trying to hurt her.

Jack had kept her there with them, instead of leaving her in the hospital, for that reason. If she was going to wake up around strangers, she might as well have woken among those who could still explain it all to her. It was not going to be smooth sailing, but she'd be on the TARDIS, so if that couldn't prove to her that they weren't lying, then what would?

That would have been the best scenario. Only now that had all gone to hell, because she'd woken up while they were out looking after Caroline Sheffield. She'd woken up alone, confused, probably saw the door and ran out without a moment's thought. It had not been winter when they took her; she wouldn't be dressed for this. But then neither were they.

They were thankful for the layer of snow on the ground, thanks to which they could follow the steps leading away from the ship, but if she'd managed to get out of the snow, they would have that much more trouble to…

"There she is," Jack tapped Chester's arm, and he turned, seeing as he did the woman stood shivering and wild-eyed on the corner of a street. She had no idea where she was, and she had to be confused, with how different things looked, five hundred and some years from where she'd last been. There weren't too many people about, but they had a feeling the woman would not hesitate to keep her promise and scream as soon as she saw them.

They stayed out of sight until she'd wandered somewhere less out in the open, and then they came, slowly, with their empty hands in evidence. When she turned and saw them, she didn't scream; she looked like she was about to jump at them.

"Please, we don't want to hurt you," Jack told her.

"You gave me something," she accused. "You… you kidnapped me."

"It was a preventative measure," Chester told her, and she frowned.

"Where am I? What is this place?" she demanded to know.

"Chicago," Jack told her, and she laughed. "No, seriously."

"This is not Ch…"

"We've travelled in time, you wouldn't recognize it. My name is Jack, Jack Harkness, what's yours?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," she scoffed.

"First name then, just so I don't have to call you 'hey.'" She hesitated, still primed to strike.

"Angela," she told them, and Chester blinked, like some things were lining up in his head. He looked to Jack, then back to the woman. It was the eyes; he knew those eyes.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked him.

"There's a, uh… There's a girl called Angela, she's a TA in one of my classes. I keep trying to talk to her, but I… I can't," he admitted shyly. "I think… Is that who I'm going to marry? Is that…" He looked back to the woman with her eyes, her name. "I told you who I was before, please, I swear we're not playing tricks on you. I really am Chester Hinds, I need to know if you were named after someone, if there's someone called Angela… Angela Fitzpatrick. She's got light brown hair, just the same as her eyes."

Angela Hinds stood listening to this man, and what Jack had hoped to happen happened: the fight went from her stance. She was believing him.

And then something else happened, the opposite of something he might have hoped for. The three of them standing there, the two men facing the woman a few paces away, none of them dressed for the weather, had drawn the attention of a policeman. He came up to them.

"Is everything alright here? Miss?" Jack and Chester watched Angela, unsure what she do. She could get them in trouble with a single word.

"Yes," Angela told the man. "Everything's fine."

"You should get inside, you'll catch your death."

"We'll do that, thank you." They had to wait until he left, and until Angela took a step toward them. "You won't drug me again, will you?"

"Will you come willingly?" Jack asked.

"What happens when I do?"

"We're just going back to the ship. Until we find this assassin and stop her, it's one of the safest places you can be. We might need you, actually. The last one we got away from the assassin, she's only a child. Will you look out for her?"

They had returned to the TARDIS, and there they found Noah had done quite well on his own with the girl, sitting on the ground and teaching her a hand-clapping game he would play with his sister. When he saw the others had returned, he scrambled up to his feet.

"Oh good, you found her," he nodded and coughed. "Hello," he waved.

"How long has that been going on?" Jack pointed to the console.

There was a blip. The assassin had found a new target.

X

_London, England – April 12__th__ 2987_

Carter Grant had always wanted to visit England, for as long as he could remember. This might have been how he'd come to correspond with a girl there. Her name was Alice, and they'd been talking and writing for nearly ten years. Things were going to change though. They had discussed this trip for months before they had decided to go for it. Carter would come and meet her here, and then, if all went well, she would come back to Chicago with him, to visit his home just like he would visit hers.

He had arrived earlier than planned, and while he was considering how he would surprise her, he had noticed: he was being watched. The woman had long turquoise hair, half-shaded sunglasses, and from the moment he saw her, he had a bad feeling. His father had been a soldier, who had taught his son many somewhat inappropriate lessons for the age he'd been. One of them had to do with spotting hidden weapons, and he was never so glad to have retained this information as when it dawned on him the woman carried herself differently than the others. She had something, inside her jacket… and she was walking toward him.

So he ran.

He was cutting through the crowd, trying to think, not so much about why someone would want to hurt him, especially when he had only just arrived in this country, but about how he was going to evade her.

He never saw the vehicle coming toward him, not until it slammed into him and he went careening into the street.

His whole world felt like it was screaming and spinning, and he didn't know what was happening, but before he passed out, he thought he heard voices, a man and a boy.

"We have to get him to a doctor, now," the man said.

"Like your alien guy?" the boy asked.

"No, Noah, the medical kind."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	28. More Than One Way To

**"The Generational Purge"**

**28. More Than One Way To**

_London, England – April 12__th__ 2987_

Jack thought he understood it now. Whatever drove this woman to act as she did, she wasn't indifferent to the course of events, and if Jack could stop her, if he could 'claim' her intended victims, then maybe that was just how it was supposed to be. Something or someone was telling her this was not the way, and she would accept it.

They had not been able to stop the man from getting hit, but it was clear in an instant, this was the one she had intended to kill. Jack, Noah, and Chester all came and stood in the street, between the man and the assassin. None of them were bothered in any way by the bystanders who had gathered after the accident, or the distraught driver. They had business to finish with the assassin.

"This one isn't yours, walk away," Jack told her. She tilted her head just so, observing the man in the street as she slid her sunglasses off.

"He doesn't look like he'll live much longer. It will do," she declared. Noah was angry.

"He didn't do anything wrong! Not him, not me, or Chester, or Angela, Caroline, Jeremy, or Anita!" he listed off. "Why don't you go back where you came from and leave us alone?"

"Because that's not how it works," the assassin was not thrown.

"Then I won't feel bad about this," he launched himself forward and with a fist he struck her square in the jaw.

"Noah, don't!" Jack called, while the boy backpedalled. The crowd was unmoved, like they were watching live theater. The assassin had barely stumbled at all, but when she looked back to them, they could see her lip had split, bleeding down her chin. Jack caught up Puck's hand by the wrist, holding it up, down to the blood transferred on to his knuckles.

"Fine. If this is how you want to do it." And she was gone.

"Don't wipe it off," Jack told Noah. "Come on," they went back to the man laid out on the street. "We have to get him to a doctor, now."

"Like your alien guy?"

"No, Noah, the medical kind."

X

They would have time later to ask themselves how no one had ever stopped them from taking the man and carrying him off. For now, all that mattered was getting him the care he needed. If he died, it would all have been in vain.

They had taken him to the hospital where already Jeremy and Anita Holt were kept slumbering, putting the one they had come to identify as Carter Grant in trusted hands. They had expressed it as clearly as they could: they had to do everything in their power to keep that man from dying. As he was wheeled off, Jack thought to himself, with their being so close now, was this Jaime's grandfather? Great grandfather?

They'd left Chester to watch the console, in case of a new blip. The assassin wouldn't stop, they knew. It was only a matter time before she chose someone else. In the meantime, the rest of them sat, waiting, and it would almost have been comical, if they weren't in so much potential trouble. Here he sat with Carter Grant's family. That was who they were, really. Noah, and Angela, and Caroline… They may have been very, very distant relatives in some cases, but they were of the same bloodline.

"So… if that man dies," Angela asked. "We die?"

"No, not you," Jack explained. "He is your descendant. He was born about six hundred and fifty years after you. If he dies, his children won't be born, or his grandchildren, or anyone who may have come after." Angela looked to the girl, sat in her lap, and the teenage boy by her side.

"What is your name?" she asked him.

"Noah… Noah Puckerman. But I was born a few hundred years before…" he spoke like this was the most natural thing in his life, and it had made Jack laugh, until he looked back and saw his face. Something was wrong.

"Noah?" he put his hand on the boy's back. "Noah, are you alright?"

"I don't know, I just… I don't… I feel weird." Jack had a hunch. He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was.

"Angela, stay here, watch the girl," he instructed, getting Noah to stand up and follow him.

When they arrived at the TARDIS, Chester was coming out, like he was about to run, and he sped when he saw them. "It's blinking, the thing!" he gestured.

"Yeah, I figured. Stay here with the others," Jack told him, taking Noah into the ship.

"What's happening to me?" he asked.

X

_Toledo, Ohio – June 27__th__ 1985_

Beatrice Oshiro had found her mark in a record store, working the cash register. She looked bored out of her mind. There were plenty of customers, and she would meet each one that crossed her register with that same expression on her face. Beatrice would have to catch her out when she would be on her own. Her lip was still bruised, but it had stopped bleeding. She was not in the habit of being struck.

Luckily, a few minutes later, the cashier stood from her stool, took a bag from under the counter, and as she was replaced by a man about one tick more cheerful, she went out the door for what the assassin figured was her break. Beatrice walked out of the store and soon found the girl stood in the alley in between her store and the next, lighting a cigarette.

"What are you looking at?" the girl had seen her standing there. _I suppose she looks like him. He should be born in, what, eight years? Nine?_

"Can I get one of those?" she pointed to the pack still in her hands. "I can pay."

"Whatever," the girl shrugged, as listless as ever, reaching into the pack and holding one of the cigarettes out to the stranger.

"Thank you," Beatrice reached, only what she grasped was the girl's wrist, and a moment later her other hand was wrapped tight around her throat, squeezing the air out of her. _That should get his attention._

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	29. A Fortunate Accident

**"The Generational Purge"**

**29. A Fortunate Accident**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Norman and Hari had kept watch over the warden, and so they would continue to do just as they'd done, while the Doctor went inside to speak with the man. He sat across from him.

"Hello again," he nodded.

"What can I do for you now, Doctor?" He still had a bit of that haughty air about him, like he thought he would get out of this unscathed, but it had deflated some since the last time they'd spoken.

"Your assassin. I want to know about her." That he now knew she was a woman, where he had previously assumed it was a man, made doubt flash across the warden's face. But he resumed his posture and obliged.

"Her name is Beatrice Oshiro."

"Is she here now?"

"No. I would know if she was. She is out on assignment, and she won't return until she is done."

"Assignment, is that what you call it," the Doctor gave that kind of smile that should have given anyone chills. "How did she come to work for you?" The question was unexpected, but what it could entail was not lost on either of them.

"By accident."

"As so many assassins do," the Doctor was not satisfied by the answer, so the warden went on.

"She was the first one I pulled out of time, before I installed this new class of guards at Orcus," he explained, and the Doctor understood.

"From your own blood. She is your kin." Nathaniel Nash had nothing about him that would suggest he could be related to someone called Oshiro, but then given enough years, who knew?

"I didn't believe it at first. The technology was still all so new, and she didn't look at all the way I thought she would. She was confused, as you can imagine. But the more we spoke, the more I could believe that she and I shared blood."

"Justice," the Doctor intoned.

"Yes," Nathaniel Nash smiled.

"You two shared a definition."

"I showed her what it was that I could do. I told her about these people, these criminals I had under this roof. I presented her with the possibility, to wipe away their wrongs before they could ever exist, and to eradicate the blood that had borne it."

"And she agreed to kill for you."

"Oh, she volunteered."

"Should I be surprised that your bloodline, with this… sense of justice… bred out one so happy to kill?" the Doctor asked the warden.

"Doctor, I would not presume that she carries any joy in her heart over this. It is the means to an end."

"Right, yes, what else would it be?" the Doctor sat back in his chair. "Tell me, warden, this lockdown of yours, how secure is it?"

"You won't be leaving until I lift it," the warden smirked.

"I don't have any reason to leave, do I? So no one can get out, is that it?"

"What do you think?"

"What about getting in, can anyone get in?"

"Oh, they can come in all they want."

"But they won't leave," the Doctor finished for him.

"Exactly."

"Right. You might want to get your system checked then, because someone did come in, and then they got out." The warden's face froze. "Yeah," the Doctor nodded.

"When was this?"

"A few minutes ago."

"Impossible."

"And there's another definition problem for you, Nathaniel." The warden said nothing, quietly thinking about the supposed intruder. "I don't know why I'm asking you. This doesn't actually concern you."

"Do I detect some problems, Doctor? What have you been up to?"

"This isn't a confessional."

"No, but you did bring it up. Perhaps there is something weighing on your conscience."

"You have no idea."

"Oh, but, see, this is what I deal with every day. These prisoners have acted against the law, and it is our hope here that they should come to learn from their errors."

"But then they're never good enough for you, are they? That's why you purge them."

"Because I know what they are, what they will always be," Nathaniel Nash declared.

"Tell me this then. I've heard the word 'treatment.' You bring these men and women here, and they never come back out. If that's the case, then why isn't Jaime Grant in here? Your assassin is out there, priming to eliminate his ancestor, but no one seems to know anything about it. Unless, of course, no one is supposed to know." The warden said nothing. "Does your assassin know you're using her for your personal profit? See, I don't think she'd approve of that."

"You didn't answer my question," the warden had nothing to lean on but this, and he was going to hang on for dear life.

"I'm not the one being interrogated here, am I?" the Doctor reminded him.

"Maybe you should. I sense nothing but trouble when I look at you."

"Knowing what you've been up to, I'm not surprised."

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?" the warden was getting unnerved. "You call yourself Doctor. That is not a name. You wear this one like a shield. What terribleness do you hide behind it? What is your name?" The Doctor's face never changed.

"You're right, it's not a name, but it is mine. What about you, Warden? I know what I've used my name for. What have you done with yours?"

"If you won't answer, then what do we have to talk about?"

"Nothing much, I suppose. So I'll leave you be. For now," the Doctor bowed his head and moved for the door, but then turned again. "One more thing. This Beatrice Oshiro, is she your ancestor or your descendant?"

"On your way now, Doctor," the warden would not answer.

"Right, I thought as much."

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	30. Find Someone To Carry You

**"The Generational Purge"**

**30. Find Someone to Carry You**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

She had determined herself not to take the crutch with her as she returned to McKinley High. That idea was immediately tossed aside, when she nearly fell on her face after taking just a few steps outside her apartment. She had to suck up her pride and get her crutch back, making her way in for another day of subbing in English.

Everyone seemed very interested in her foot as she started her way down the hall, and she wondered if she could re-evaluate this no crutch business. She was nothing if not determined to try. At the very least, it would keep her from dropping her bag, which she did for the second time so far today.

"Hold on there, I've got you." Just as she was about to work her descent to pick up the bag, the football coach came up and did it for her.

"Thanks," she sighed, putting it back on her shoulder.

"Guess that explains why you didn't show up for class yesterday afternoon," Coach Beiste pointed to her foot. _Oh no…_ She had been at school, in between classes, when she had jumped over to the prison. When she had found her way out of there, the rest of her day had consisted of a few hours at the hospital and then correcting assignments before she'd turned and fallen asleep. She'd completely forgotten about her other class. At the very least, she did have a good excuse.

"Yeah," she laughed awkwardly.

"Need a hand?" the coach offered her arm, and being in no position to refuse, Gemma had put her hand on it.

"I hate this thing," she nodded to her crutch.

"I don't think anyone likes them. At least it's temporary, right? Could be worse."

"It could," Gemma agreed.

"So you're the one who's replacing Will while he's away," the coach chatted.

"I am," Gemma confirmed.

"Any of the kids giving you any trouble?" Beiste smirked and Gemma laughed.

"Nothing I can't handle," she assured her.

"That's good. They're good kids, you know. But they can be a lot to handle sometimes."

"I've noticed," Gemma confided.

"If you ever need someone to back you up, you know where to find me. Looks like you'll be with us for the long haul, right?"

"Right," Gemma tried not to look at her in any way that might show what she was really thinking about. _Who knows how long I'll be here doing this?_

"Well, here you are. You might want to go see Figgins, just so he knows what happened and doesn't have you replaced."

"Subbing the sub, wouldn't want that. Thanks, Coach."

"Please, call me Shannon."

"Ginny," she pointed to herself in return.

"See you around, Ginny."

She was going to have to do most of this lesson sitting down. Once she'd found her seat, she was too relieved to be off her feet to rise again unless she absolutely had to. She didn't want to admit that this all felt worse than she anticipated, but it did. She knew she still had to keep an eye on things, just as she'd been told, just as she had to keep up appearances here as Ginny Harrison.

But being hurt was making her homesick. And by this she did not mean her tiny book-lined apartment, or the TARDIS and the Doctor. She meant her home, where she was just Gemma Lucas, in her own bed, her own belongings. She wanted her dog, Paulie. Her parents would look after her while she was away, and in moments like these, she would have given anything to be with her, to see how excited she would look when she saw her. She could see her. She could take the vortex manipulator and pop on home. _If I do that, I'll never want to leave again._

_Stop acting like a child, you have other things to do._

She thought about the football coach again, about how kind and helpful she had been, and it made Gemma realize just how closed in she'd been forced to become over these last few months. This was not the kind of person she was at all. The only time she really got to open up even a little was when she was around those kids, but every time she had to remind herself about her rules. Don't tell them who you are, even if they've figured you out. Stay Ginny Harrison.

But after talking to the coach, the only thing she could think about was that maybe it was time to change the rules, to tell someone, some people, who she was. She wouldn't unroll her entire personal history of course. There were some things she must never even hint at while she was at McKinley, but then she wasn't concerned about those. They were her own truth.

When it came to her status as Doctor's companion, when it came to people like Artie Abrams and Noah Puckerman, her personal spy detail, that was where she had to be more calculating in what information did or didn't come out. If it were up to her, she would have told them long ago. The way she saw it, they needed to know. The longer they had to get ready, the better.

Puck came into class, with that same smirk of his. Only now, when she saw him, she saw the man who'd chased her, who'd caused for her to fall and hurt herself. Puck wasn't even there for that, but still, everything that was happening while she was over there, it had already come and gone for him. He'd met the Doctor and said goodbye to him, going back to his own life. It was no wonder he would have joined forces with Artie. She didn't count on Sugar doing the same. She had her own secrets to keep. But then what about the others? There would be those she knew she had nothing to worry about, because they had no idea the Doctor even existed. There were also those who had met him, the ones Artie and Puck didn't know about yet.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	31. Ultimatums & Lines Crossed

**"The Generational Purge"**

**31. Ultimatums & Lines Crossed**

_Toledo, Ohio – June 27__th__ 1985_

He'd felt about as bad as that one time he'd gotten universally car sick, and probably worse, for a minute or so. He couldn't even explain it. But then, just as sudden as it had started, it had ended. The TARDIS had just landed, and together they ran out. He'd been too messed up to really think about what might have caused his ordeal, but as they ran, he looked around, and it all came together. This was not the future, it was the past, the not so distant past, compared to how far he'd been before. It was Ohio. He'd seen these streets before, he was sure. They were in Toledo, where his mother had grown up.

"I think she used to work there, she showed me once," he pointed to the store. The assassin was nowhere to be found, but just as they passed the alley, Jack skidded to a stop, catching something in his periphery, and Noah followed. He only needed to see her for a moment to recognize her.

"Mom!"

She was unconscious, lying on the ground, and they both crouched down around her. He'd seen enough pictures of her at that age to know that was her. This time he really might be sick, to find her like this. The last time he'd seen her, before this had all started, she'd been so upset with him. Why did he have to be so bad to her sometimes?

"Is she dead?"

"You're still here, aren't you?" Jack told him kindly. "Whatever happened, she's fine now, just needs to wake up."

"Jack, look," Noah spotted a slip of paper sticking out of his mother's collar. He pulled it out and handed it to Jack when he'd read it.

"Surrender the boy and this ends," Jack read it aloud. That was all it said. "Alright, first things first, let's get her home. Do you know where she lived in 1985?"

"What am I, Google?" Noah reached for the bag on the ground next to her and found her driver's license. "Here," he showed it to Jack. "I know she said she used to live around the block from the store," he got up, looking around. "Pretty sure it's that way."

Jack had picked up the girl who would be Noah's mother, while the boy carried her bag. They found the address, and after Noah pulled out the keys, they carried her inside, to her couch. Jack set her down, while Noah found a blanket and laid it over her. When he turned and saw Jack smirking, he frowned.

"What?" he shrugged. "Man, she always complains my room's a mess, has she seen this place?" he took in the messy living room. He wondered if she'd met his dad already, if they'd gone out on any dates yet. He was sure she had told him at some point, but with his father running out on them, he didn't care all that much about who he was and how they had fallen in love. It was all a lie to him.

They waited ten minutes before the girl finally stirred. Noah was at her side the whole time. Then she gasped and sprang up.

"Hey, you're alright, you're safe!" Noah promised her. She looked at him, at the man behind him, then saw they were in her apartment.

"How'd we get here?" she panted.

"We found you unconscious in the alley, we found your address and brought you home, hope that's alright," Jack spoke in that same kind tone as he'd used with Noah.

"There… there was a woman, she started choking me!" she reached to her neck, her hands trembling. Noah took them in his and she looked at him.

"She's gone, it's over. She won't hurt you again." His mother looked at him, and maybe it was some kind of intuitive connection, but his words calmed her down instantly.

"Thank you, I… How long was I out there?"

"Not long I think," Noah told her.

"Did you see her? The woman?"

"No, I… my…. My father and I," he tossed a look to Jack, who stood up straight, "We were passing by and you were just lying there."

"Your…" she looked up, and for how panicked she'd been a moment ago, now she was kind of stunned and… smiling? "You carried me here, you must be strong then," she complimented. Noah shut his eyes. He did not need this.

"It was no trouble," Jack gave that toothy grin, and the girl actually laughed, a flirty near giggle, and Noah turned a glare as good as sharp knives toward the man. Jack chuckled nervously. "Listen, we'll get out of your hair. Just take it easy today, alright?"

"What if she comes back?" she asked, honestly worried.

"She won't," Noah declared, standing up.

Walking out of the apartment and back on to the street heading toward the TARDIS, Noah was pointedly silent. Jack didn't say a word, not until they'd made it back inside the ship. He had a feeling the boy was just holding it together until he was free to talk, or shout, as he pleased. "Are you okay?" Jack asked him.

"You're seriously going to ask that? No. No, I'm not okay. This is going to end. No one goes after my mother, no one. I don't care who she is, what she can do, we're going to take her down. I'm sick of running away from her, I want to run at her. We're going to turn the tables on her."

"Alright," Jack was with him all the way. "It's your call, how do you want to do this?" Noah paced about for a moment, thinking.

"Let's draw her out. She keeps going after my people, why don't we go after hers? Can we get to her ancestors?"

"Well…" Jack went to find the once clean rag they had used to wipe the assassin's blood from Noah's knuckles. "We do have this, so… we can try."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	32. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

**"The Generational Purge"**

**32. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Neither of them was speaking at the moment. Jack was busy attempting to track down their bait, while Noah just sat there, looking up at the ceiling. Jack didn't know what was going through the boy's mind at the moment, but he could only guess. He probably would be in that same mindset if his own mother had been threatened. It was completely different for Noah. He only had her for a parent, to depend on. As much as they might have butted heads, him and her, he wasn't going to let her get attacked as she'd been and do nothing.

"She's safe now. You did that, got her home," Jack spoke up then, and Noah didn't look down.

"I don't need comforting. You know what I need?" he droned on.

"Results," Jack breathed, while Noah pointed at him, eyes still on the TARDIS ceiling. There was a sound from the console. "Well, you're in luck. I think we've just found something." Noah jumped up, coming to look.

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't." He turned to the boy. "You're going to stay here, and I'm not going to take any arguing on that. Let me handle this. It's you she wants."

"Fine," Noah frowned. "I'll do what I can."

X

Beatrice Oshiro was waiting. She knew the message would be found, just as it would be understood. This was meant to be a simple job, it had always been, until now. If not for this man and his ship, the boy would have had nowhere to go to get away from her. He would have been dead hours ago, and she would have been back at Orcus. Instead she had been running after one target after another. She'd had enough, and she had a feeling they'd had plenty, too. This needed to end. If the boy didn't want his mother to be killed, then he would come forward. It would be the honorable thing to do.

She was signalling the waitress at the café where she sat, waiting, when there was a signal from the device around her wrist. It was supposed to alert her to potential threats to her own line. She felt her jaw set. She should have known this would be their move. It was a trap, of course it would be. That didn't mean she could ignore it. She needed to be cautious.

X

_London, England – May 28__th__ 2010_

Following the results he'd been given had led Jack into a small book shop. The bell jangled at the door. He didn't feel comfortable having to do this, but it was going to be the only way to get the woman to play to their rules. Part of him felt like, for all she'd done, there had to be a reasonable side to her. He'd seen it in Chicago, with Caroline Sheffield.

"Can I help you find something?"

He turned and came face to face with a Japanese girl, no more than eighteen or nineteen years old. Having seen a smile not unlike the shop girl's a few times today, he guessed he had found his mark.

"You can help me, yes." He had found some psychic paper back on the TARDIS, and now when he presented it to the girl, she blinked.

"Police?" she looked worried.

"Don't worry, you're not in trouble, miss…" he gave a jovial smile.

"Takenaka… Naoko," she smiled back, and he thought he saw her blush.

"A lovely name," he complimented.

"Thank you," she went on smiling. "You said I could help you?"

"Yes, you may. I'm working a case at the moment."

"Here? But… aren't you American?" she pointed out.

"Joint task force," he quickly explained, and she didn't question any further. "We're attempting to bring in a suspect," he put the psychic paper back in his pocket. "We need to use your shop in a sting operation."

"Wh… This shop? Now? I don't know, I think I need to call my manager," she started to turn.

"That's alright, I already talked to him, see?" he pulled out the psychic paper again, hoping she would now see exactly what he was telling her.

"You talked to William?"

"Yes, yes I did," he nodded. She read what was to be this confirmation, and now she looked halfway between convinced and frightened.

"This… this suspect. Is he dangerous?"

"You won't be harmed," Jack promised. "And our suspect is a woman. We need you, Naoko. We've searched for a long time to bring this suspect in."

"How do you know she'll be here?"

"Confidential intel, I'm sorry. But we are positive she'll be here." _She will be, if she wants to make sure no one touches her ancestor._ "It won't be long."

"What do I have to do?" the girl asked, still nervous.

"Well, now, it's possible I'll have to pretend to hurt you. I won't do it for real, but you might have to pretend like I am, do you understand?"

"Like acting," she guessed.

"Yes, exactly. Do you think you could do that?"

"I think so. If it'll help."

"It really will," Jack assured her. She looked around the shop. There were no other customers. This hadn't been planned, but it was just as well. They had better keep it that way. "Do you have some kind of sign to put in the window? You know, something that says 'we'll be back in fifteen minutes?'" Naoko went to the counter and pulled something from under it before moving to place it in the window. "Leave the door unlocked, now come back here," he instructed, and she did as told.

He brought her to sit in the corner, out of view from any passersby, or anyone else who might have been looking for her… like her many-great granddaughter. Jack thought about Noah, sitting in the TARDIS. He thought about his mother, back in 1985, about Chester and Angela, Jeremy and Anita, about Caroline, and Carter… He thought about Nikki Tomkins. He couldn't even be sure this was about her, too, but he was starting to get a feeling. _I'll do it for you too, Jaime._

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	33. The Product of One Mind

**"The Generational Purge"**

**33. The Product of One Mind**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Walking out of the room and back into the hall, the Doctor paused, which caught the attention of Norman Larsen, standing by. When he sensed he was being watched, the Doctor turned, staring back at the man. "You know, sometimes I amaze myself at how short-sighted I can be," he chuckled.

"Sorry?" Norman asked.

"Amaze might not be the right word, more like… curse." He still didn't understand. "That's your tech in there, isn't it?" he nodded back to the room. To the untrained eye, Norman Larsen might have looked unfazed by this statement, but the Doctor's eye might have been the most 'trained' there was out there. "Hari, keep an eye on the warden, will you? Norman and I need to have a talk," he led the man away.

"Yes, Doctor."

Norman wasn't talking. He followed the Doctor, averting his eyes like he knew the other man could read him as well as though he'd had all of it written on his face. "We could stop him, you know? You and me? This could all end. He's kept you here because he thought it was the right thing to do, the safe thing, for his interests. If you ask me, it's a pretty stupid thing."

"Where are we going?" Norman asked.

"You'll find out. Now go on, tell me. How did you get here?" Now that he'd opened his mouth, he couldn't very well pretend like he wasn't listening.

"I came upon it almost by accident. I met a man in a pub, and we got to talking. He told me about this object that he had. 'It's real smart with blood,' he said. I was intrigued. He said he could sell it to me. I didn't have any great fortunes, but I was comfortable. So I asked him for a price. Maybe I should have walked away right then and there, when I saw the look on his face. He said that, for me, he was willing to make a deal. He would let me have it for free because, actually, it was still at a prototype level and they didn't see how it could get any better. But if I could find a way to improve it, well, then I could see about acquiring it permanently."

"How'd he know that you could?" the Doctor wondered.

"Is what I should have asked myself. But all I could see was the potential. I'd already started working it out in my head. So I agreed, and I took the thing home. I worked on it for weeks, must have been. I tested it, recorded the results, continued to work at it. Then one day, I discovered that… whatever it was I was doing, I'd already gotten it past what these people expected it to be. I knew that, in the wrong hands, it could be dangerous. So I tried to hide it."

"How long did that last?"

"Not very. One day, he came," he looked over his shoulder. "Nathaniel Nash. I think they tipped him off about me, the ones who gave me the tech. He asked to see a demonstration. I refused, lied and said it had not worked, that it had become useless. He said that was unfortunate, and he went away. The next morning, I woke up here. They'd found my work, and now they were going to use it. I was going to be kept here, like any other prisoner. I had never done anything in my entire life, I was an honest man… I am… But when I came here, I was a murderer, a lie, and a cheat. I was going to live and die by that claim. And my work would die with me, because they would use it right under my nose, let me see what it had led to, and I would never see the light of day again."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"How could I?" He hesitated. "My son was only a year old when I was brought here. He'd be two now. But there he is, out there, a young man," his voice broke. "I never thought I would get to see that. But they had that helmet on him, he wouldn't have known me from any other man on the planet. He was there, as always when it came to Nash, to tease me, and to keep me in line. If I told anyone who I really was, Nash wouldn't hesitate to kill him. It would help him, wouldn't it? If I was out there, with my son, I could teach him about what I'd done, when he was old enough. He could protect it, as I'd done. But not in here, not like this."

They stopped when they reached a door Norman recognized as the infirmary. Before he could ask what they were doing there, the Doctor had taken his sonic screwdriver and opened the door.

"The warden, I imagine he keeps everyone's blood on record?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes," Norman confirmed.

"Do you know where it is?"

"There's a vault, I can't…"

"I can. Show me."

The Doctor had made quick work of the vault door, and inside there were the marked vials, every last prisoner catalogued, even the staff, every last one of them. They'd hit exactly where they needed to. After he'd retrieved what he needed, he shut the vault door and went to a table, reaching for something from the pocket inside his jacket. Norman was startled to find his device put on the table with the blood.

"How did you get that?"

"Had a nice chat with the warden. I don't think I told him about this though," he squinted, making to think, before looking back at it. He'd observed it before, but again as he did, he had the same reaction, staring back at the man who'd perfected it.

"What?" Norman asked.

"Nothing. Don't mind me, I get distracted. Now the beautiful thing about this lockdown, these modifications the warden has made, is I can tap into this array of his that allows people like your son and so many others, to be pulled out of time. So you know what we're going to do, Norman?"

"I don't…"

"We're going to make a call."

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	34. We Fall To Dust

**"The Generational Purge"**

**34. We Fall to Dust**

_London, England – May 28__th__ 2010_

Beatrice Oshiro appeared from behind a tree. She had walked these streets before, though not in this time. The signal was strong, she could feel it, feel her… She also spotted the blue ship, the box that had come after her all through this chase. It sat in the shade, inconspicuous in how ordinary it looked. It was far from that, she knew. So they were here, as she knew they would.

She followed the signal to the small book shop. There was a sign in the window, but when she tried the door, she found it was unlocked. The shop was silent, empty looking, but not empty at all.

"I know you're here," she spoke calmly. The man stepped out, holding tightly to the young girl in front of him. She looked terrified.

"You shouldn't have gone after his mother," Jack told the assassin, who paid him no mind. Her eyes were on the girl, eighteen years old by her calculations, and though she showed none of it, she was amazed. One day, the girl would be a hunchbacked old woman who would walk to the park every day with the young Beatrice. Today, she was younger than Beatrice herself.

"Where is the boy?" she had to stay minded.

"Not here," Jack replied.

"Do not toy with me, sir. Where is he?"

X

_Inside the TARDIS_

He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but he actually missed Chester Hinds. Maybe it was just that he didn't like being alone, but he wished they hadn't left him behind at that hospital.

If he got to go home again, he would try and be different. He wasn't going to turn into some nerd, wasn't going to stop being who he was, but there were some things that couldn't stay as they were. He was going to be more attentive to his mother, be better for his sister. His father wasn't there, but then the same went for her sister, for his mother. He had to step up, be the man of the house. He had to set an example for his sister, or try at least. He wanted her to know that he wasn't going to let anyone hurt her.

He wondered what his mother would remember of that day in eighty-five, the woman who'd tried to choke her, the man and his son who had brought her back home. Would she remember their faces? Would she know it was him? It had all already happened for her though, so if she did remember, he could have figured it out, couldn't he? Maybe she didn't remember, or she didn't want to remember. The ordeal had been something she would rather forget; he could accept that. Although thinking about all this time travel and whatnot was starting to make his head hurt, he chose to believe that his mother still existing, that he and his sister had been born, was a good sign, that they would put an end to this.

He didn't know what to do to keep himself grounded. He'd never been any good at staying put, which had gotten him into plenty of trouble over the years, and this might have been the worst of those times. Here he was, on a ship that travelled in time and space, and he could only sit and do nothing. His hands were practically begging to go mess around with those controls, but then what if he accidentally got sent back to the Jurassic period and get squashed by a dinosaur? So he couldn't even touch them. He could only wait, while Jack was facing off with the woman who'd hurt his mother. He couldn't stand it. That woman had to pay, he needed to see it. It wasn't just for him and his mother, it was for all of them, all those people who would be born because of him, that she'd tried to hurt.

He wasn't just going to blaze in there. He didn't have anything to defend himself, and he knew this chick wasn't messing around. But he could get closer, see what was happening. So after a very short debate with himself, he got up and headed to the door. He stepped out of the TARDIS, shut the door, and took three steps forward.

It felt like something or someone had gripped him by the belly button and yanked him like a fish out of the ocean. He shut his eyes, feeling cold all over. And then he was gone.

X

Inside the shop, while Jack Harkness and Beatrice Oshiro faced off, the disruption had brought their standstill to an even quieter place. They'd sensed something, both of them, and they looked back at each other.

"What did you do?" Beatrice asked.

"I didn't do anything, what did you…" Jack started to ask back, but he didn't get to finish.

Suddenly, Beatrice Oshiro had frozen in place, and then she'd disappeared. He'd seen her do it before, but it had been by her hand. It didn't look like she'd left at all; it looked like someone had taken her. Young Naoko gasped and passed out, crumbling in Jack's arms. He had a hold of her, and he brought her to the back, where he rested her on an old couch. With any luck, she would wake up and discover it had all been a dream. He pulled the sign from the window, put it back where she'd taken it, and then he ran for the TARDIS.

"Noah?" he called, even though he knew all too well that the boy wouldn't be there. He went back to the console. "Alright now, you've been very helpful to me all day, so pull through one more time," he begged to nothing and everything, to the exterior so unassuming and the interior so marvelous… He had to find where the boy had been taken, because he was almost certain they had been taken by the same people and to the same place. Given any chance, the assassin would finish her job, and there'd be nothing Jack could do to stop her.

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	35. Two Halves of One Whole

**"The Generational Purge"**

**35. Two Halves of One Whole**

_London, England, May 28__th__ 2010_

Naoko's head felt light and heavy all at once. She opened her eyes, blinking back to clarity to discover she was lying on the couch in the back of the shop. She sat up, reaching to her head. Had it all been a dream? It felt so real.

She heard the chimes dangling from the door and she scrambled to stand, still a little lightheaded, before making her way back to the front. She wasn't sure what she expected to find there, the policeman, the woman with the turquoise hair… Instead there was just one woman, not with turquoise hair but with a single crutch.

"Can… Can I help you?" she looked around, still searching for any clue that there might have told her what she'd seen had really happened.

"I don't know, I already have a mountain of books waiting for me at home, it's not like I need more… but then they just kind of… show up," the woman shrugged, smiling.

"Well," Naoko found herself able to smile again, "I know how that is. But I'm getting better at controlling myself. I do have an employee discount."

"Here, this looks good," the woman on the crutch brought one book to the register.

"I have this one," Naoko commented.

"Have you read it yet?" the woman asked with a conspiratorial smirk.

"Not yet," Naoko admitted. She reached for a bag from under the counter, and she stopped.

"Is everything alright?" the woman asked.

"Yes, I just…" she looked to the window, no sign hanging there. "I had a strange dream. It felt so real. I don't even remember lying down," she explained, then shrugged it off, put the book in the bag, took the woman's money, gave her the change, the receipt, and the bag. "Here you go. Happy reading," she smiled. The woman smiled back and made her way back out of the shop. Naoko went to help her, holding the door open. It really must have been a dream then.

X

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

All the warmth in him had gone away, made him shut his eyes, but now it was like a rush of warm air had come back to him, and when he opened his eyes, he was not in London at all. The room had that antiseptic sort of smell to it that reminded him of a clinic. He turned around, finding two men stood there. One of them had the plain clothes that got him to understand, even without asking, that he was in a prison. But then the other man, there was something about him… And then he knew who this was.

"Doctor?" he asked.

"The very one," the Doctor breathed. "You haven't been in the company of a friend of mine by any chance, have you?"

"Jack Harkness," he nodded.

"Good, now come here," the Doctor motioned for him to stand behind him and the prisoner while he did something to the device on the table next to him.

"Is that blood?"

"Indeed it is," the Doctor replied. "What's your name?"

"Noah."

"Stay behind me, Noah." Within seconds, she stood in the same spot where he'd appeared. "Beatrice, I presume?" he nodded.

"It's her!" Noah proclaimed, getting himself shoved back behind the Doctor for his troubles.

The assassin's eyes darted about, taking in that she was back at Orcus, that there was a man giving off a strange vibe… and there was the boy she'd been chasing. That they had been brought in this way could only mean the warden was no longer in charge. So she ran.

"Hey!" Noah tried to run after her, but the Doctor stopped him. "Let me go! She tried to kill my mom!"

"She won't get far," Norman promised. "She can't get out, none of us can."

"Who are you?" Noah frowned at him.

"There'll be time for introductions later, now come along," the Doctor put the device back inside his jacket, and if he'd had more time, Noah might have wondered how he'd managed that.

They had not even made it out of the infirmary when a rush of wind and a familiar sound stopped them.

"Oh, if it were a choir of angels…" the Doctor breathed, watching the TARDIS materialize before them. The door opened, and out came…

"Jack!" Noah exclaimed, as the man came up, tapping him on the shoulders.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, whatever. That woman's here, too," he informed him, as Jack looked up to the Doctor.

"Didn't dent her too much, did you?" the Doctor asked Jack.

"Do I need to get her detailed?" he threw back. "I wasn't sure I'd make it back here just now. We've been all over the place, chasing after that woman, securing Jaime's ancestors when she went looking for them. I should mention, there are six of them stashed in a hospital somewhere, they'll need to be taken home when this is over."

"All in time. We need to find Rose."

Rose was already looking for them. She came running up the corridor toward them, and when she saw Jack she was filled with such relief that she jumped into his arms.

"Now that's a welcome back!" Jack smirked, hugging her back.

"We were worried," she declared.

"I wasn't," the Doctor shook his head.

"Yes, you were," Rose insisted, pulling back and finally noticing the teenage boy with them. He had already noticed her; he hadn't torn his eyes away once. "Hello," she gave him a smile, and he held out his hand.

"Noah," he introduced himself, and she blinked, shaking his hand back.

"Rose," she introduced herself in return before turning to the Doctor. "I was coming to get you. The warden's getting agitated all of a sudden, does it mean what I think it means?"

"Beatrice is here," the Doctor nodded to her.

"Who's Beatrice?" Noah asked.

"That'll be the assassin," Jack guessed.

"We brought both of them here, her and the boy. Only way this is going to end is to have all the players in one place, so here we are," Norman explained.

"Who's this?" Jack asked.

"Norman Larsen," he introduced himself. "It's my device that started all this," he declared.

"And it's about to end," the Doctor looked to the rest of them.

"If the assassin is here, she'll know something's not right," Rose thought aloud.

"And she'll go rescue the warden," Jack looked around. "Where to?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	36. Carried on a Trail

**"The Generational Purge"**

**36. Carried on a Trail**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

The day she had first found herself pulled into the prison, Beatrice Oshiro had been tending her garden. It had once been her great grandmother Naoko's garden, but when she had become too old to tend it herself, Beatrice had taken over. Her parents had died when she was only six, and she had been taken in by her grandmother, Naoko's daughter, and her great grandmother, who lived together. She had continued tending the garden after her great gran had passed, and she would continue to, for as long as she could.

But as she sat there on her knees, soil stained, she'd felt something get a hold of her. The next moment, she had been in a cold room, standing before a man. He introduced himself as Nathaniel Nash and said that she was his ancestor. He looked nothing like her, which had made it very hard for her to believe. But he had the documents to prove it which, once she had been shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that they were in the future, she had been inclined to believe. He looked as surprised as she was, that she was there.

And then they'd begun to talk. He told her about his work at the prison, about the technology he had gotten a hold of. He had no idea just who he had gotten a hold of. If he had known of her past, how her parents had been murdered, there in her home, as she hid and watched, and how the man had been pardoned just weeks before, he wouldn't have found her offer, to assist him in his goal, to be so much of a surprise. Still, he had accepted it, and so they began.

The first had not been the hardest, it was the second. She had been determined the first time, but when the second came, now she had the memory of her first victim, of the look that came in his eyes as life left him. Since then, she'd had to steel herself, to carry on. She did not kill for joy; she did it for justice.

X

Somewhere along the way, Jaya and the others must have been looking to get at the warden. Moving closer to where they had stashed the warden, there were guards on ground everywhere they went, like a trail to follow Beatrice's path. The Doctor would stop to check on them as they went, and he had to notice that none of them were dead. They had fought the intruder and been neutralized by her. It was efficient, and the impression it gave the Doctor was that she could have killed them but chose not to. They could see Hari at the other end of the corridor, and he had also been incapacitated.

Just as they'd reached a junction, Jaime and Beth came running in from another corridor, stopping just short of colliding with the Doctor, Rose, Jack, Noah, and Norman.

"She's here, isn't she?" Jaime asked them.

"Dude…" Noah blinked, staring at the man that looked a whole lot like him. Jaime saw him, too, and he was just as amazed. "You're that guy, aren't you? My descendant?" His eyes moved to the woman at his side. She was staring at him, wide-eyed. She had something about her that reminded him of Chester Hinds, so she must have been… "Are you related to us, too?" Noah asked her. Beth hesitated, seeing both the Doctor and Jack shaking their heads behind the boy she knew to be her father.

"I… well…"

"You probably can't tell me, right? In case it messes things up?" Noah had spoken before she could formulate some kind of answer.

"Right," Beth breathed out, going with that.

"Sorry to interrupt the family reunion, but we've got incomings," Norman spoke up, and the others turned to find Jaya, Deck, and Ingrid coming up, the other prisoners stopping to look at the fallen guards.

"Of course," the Doctor moved up toward them. They were ready to put an end to Nathaniel Nash.

"He's here, isn't he? The assassin?" Jaya asked.

"She is," the Doctor corrected, and they rolled with it without a blink.

"Step aside, Doctor," Deck gripped the weapon in his left hand.

"You know I can't do that."

"You've asked us to be patient, and we have. But there is only so far we can go. Those two have been messing with things that shouldn't be touched. And I know you feel the same way, so be a good boy and step aside. This will only take a moment," Ingrid spoke softly.

"We've got this situation under control," the Doctor wouldn't move.

"Do you?" Jaya frowned. "You let the assassin back in here."

"Indeed I did. I'm the one who brought her back," he revealed.

"You did what?" Jaya's face looked like she didn't know whether to punch him or kiss him.

"Far be it for me to point this out, but when this is all over, the lot of you will still have sentences to serve. So unless you're looking to spend the rest of your lives here, I suggest you let me and mine continue to look after things, alright?" There was little they could say to this. Several of them knew for a fact that their respective guards had been plucked not from the past but from the future, and as little as they liked being told what to do from a stranger who'd swept in and taken charge, he had a point.

"You've got an hour," Jaya told him; she had nothing to lose. "And then we're coming. I wouldn't stand in our way."

"Understood," the Doctor told her; they would be done by then, if all went…

As soon as he'd turned around, he'd spotted that head of turquoise hair looming on the group holding down the corridor. She'd snatched Noah, pulling him to herself, the sharp end of her knife pressed at his neck. He'd grunted in surprise, alerting the others, who turned to see the assassin retreating with him.

"Dad!" Beth had blurted out without thinking. The boy might have been better positioned to stare in shock, if not for the knife pointed precariously at his throat.

"Stay back," she retreated toward the warden's holding room. There was the whirring of a weapon from behind her. It pointed not at her but past her, to hold off the Doctor and his pack. Nathaniel Nash had been freed of his restraints.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	37. The Heel That Was

**"The Generational Purge"**

**37. The Heel That Was  
**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

She wasn't going to be late this time, if anything, she would be early. She arrived before any of them and sat at the piano bench, resting her crutch by her side and pulling the book from her bag, reading as she waited. Once they'd started coming in though, she'd had to return it to her bag. All of them had the same reaction. They would see her foot, and the crutch, and they would ask what had happened, if she was alright… To each of them she said to wait, that she would tell the club as a whole, rather than repeating the story a dozen times.

"Alright, everyone's here, so what happened?" Tina asked. Gemma bowed her head, but she obliged. She would give them the same story she gave Principal Figgins when she went and saw him.

"I had some time between my classes yesterday, so I went to pick up a few things at the market. I didn't even make it to the store though, because some… distracted… person…" she kept herself from using any more 'colorful' words, "… decided they didn't need to look where they were going and almost hit me with their car, but I managed to jump away. Unfortunately, this led to my taking a fall, and well…" she pointed to her foot. "So I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon at the hospital. But I am back now, and don't think I've forgotten about the assignment I gave you last time. I'll be wanting to hear your songs today."

"Why didn't you just bail, take the week off?" Finn asked.

"What, and abandon you all?" Gemma smirked, getting a few chuckles. "Please, there's nowhere else I'd rather be, she stood, moving to sit among them. "Now, who's going first?"

Artie didn't know what to think of her story. It could well have been that this was exactly what had happened to her foot. But part of him felt like it was all just a lie. Sure, he'd been functioning on the theory that she was not who she said she was, but she still had to live her life, right? He turned to sneak a look at Puck. Gemma had her back turned to them while she sat with them, so that made it easier.

He had a weird look on his face, like he was remembering something.

Whatever it was, Artie had been brought back to attention, as Rachel went up to sing her selected song. One by one, they would be called on to take their turn and present their solos. Santana had followed behind Rachel, then Mercedes had gone, then Kurt, and Blaine, all of them. Artie was one of the last few to go. It took him a moment to remember what he'd prepared, but he pulled himself together and did his thing. He would say this was not his best performance by far, but it was done, so he went back to his spot. Puck was to go after him.

"Oh, uh… I didn't do anything," he shrugged. Artie frowned.

"Did you forget?" Gemma asked him.

"Yeah, sure," he replied.

When the period was done, Puck brushed by Artie, tapping his shoulder, which he knew to mean they would have to meet at his locker. Artie first watched Gemma stumble on down the hall. Finn had offered to help her. Once she was gone, he went to meet with Puck. He was standing there like a runner on the start line, waiting for the pistol.

"What happened back there?" Artie asked him. "I know you did something for today, you told me about it." Puck almost looked nervous, an uncommon sight for sure. "Puck?"

"Okay remember what I told you last month, about everything that happened, with Jack, and the Doctor and all that?" he kept his voice down.

"Yeah, of course," Artie nodded.

"Well, there's something I left out. It wasn't a big deal, really, one small detail. Remember the bit about someone being in the prison, they had a chase and then they disappeared?"

"I… yes…" Artie thought, then remembered.

"Beth, she said how the woman they chased, she fell. When they were running after her, she fell."

"Okay?" Artie still didn't see the point.

"She fell and Beth said she was hurt, limped into a room and locked herself up. She thought she might have hurt her foot." Artie blinked, understanding now.

"Do you think…"

"I don't know," Puck shook his head, still processing it all himself. "But what if it was? What if that was Ginny… Gemma… Her?" he pointed down the hall to where she'd gone.

"That would mean she was here in two thousand and twelve, and there in thirty something, at the same time, or… back and forth?"

"She keeps running off all the time, maybe that's where she goes?" Puck shrugged, just as confused as he was. "But how? I think we would have seen the ship at some point if that was how she was getting around."

"You said you got pulled from nothing from London to the prison, so there have to be other ways of travelling in time, right? Maybe she's got one."

The introduction of that new information silenced them both for a time. They hadn't even considered it at all, not once, not until now.

"So last month, you told me about all these things that happened in your past, but in the future, too. You heard about her getting hurt, before she actually did get hurt, because it happened… now," Artie worked it out out loud and for himself at the same time. Puck was connecting the dots in his head at the same time.

"I… Sure, yeah," he trusted in what Artie said.

"But she's been running back and forth the whole time, now, and last month, and two months ago… That couldn't all have been with you, right?"

"No, I guess not," Puck shook his head.

"So where was she running off to all those other times?" Artie pondered to him. Puck thought about it, then, looking back to Artie, he crouched to get lower.

"You know she did spend a lot of time with Sugar that first time. You don't think maybe…" he shrugged slowly, and Artie's eyes spread with wonder.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Do you think?"

"Well, there's one way of finding out."

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	38. What Justice Means To One

**"The Generational Purge"**

**38. What Justice Means To One**

_Orcus Penitentiary, in the year 3086_

No one moved. On one side, Nathaniel Nash had his weapon trained with nothing short of victorious thrill in his eyes. On the other side, the Doctor stood at the head of the larger group, with Rose, Jack, Jaime, Beth, and Norman at his back. And in the middle, Beatrice Oshiro stood, a tight grip around Noah and a knife pointed at his neck.

"Do it. Finish it," the warden commanded.

"No!" Beth cried back, and Jaime put a hand to her shoulder to calm her.

"So that one there is your daughter then?" Beatrice spoke at Noah's ear, looking at the frightened guard. "In a few moments, she'll never have existed, so please, these are both of your last moments, tell me. Don't you wish you'd never known?" He grunted, wanting to struggle, though he was very, very aware of the knife.

"You, what's your name?" he still called out.

"Don't," Jaime told her.

"First name. Just that," Noah requested. "If I'm going to die, then…"

"Beth. My name's Beth," she told him.

"Nice to meet you," he told her, and she turned away; she couldn't look.

"Alright, enough. Kill the boy!" Nash spoke again.

"Warden," the Doctor cut in. "Tell her to release him. Now." Beatrice looked at him, frowning.

"And why would I do that?" the warden shook his head. "She will do as she was told, as she does." Beatrice tightened her grip on Noah, and he struggled not to struggle.

"She will not," the Doctor announced. "She will not kill him."

"You seem so sure, don't you?" the warden almost laughed. "There's that look again, Doctor. One of these days, we will need to continue our conversation from earlier."

"The conversation is over," the Doctor glared.

"That it is," Nash agreed. "Beatrice, go on."

"You let the girl live!" Jack shouted. Beatrice looked at him. "He's fifteen. He's a child!"

"Hey!" Noah frowned.

"Shut up," Jack told him.

"Right," Noah understood. "If you kill me, my mother won't have anyone else to help raise my little sister. She needs me."

"Enough!" Nash called an end to the pity pleas.

"Jaime, were you called to, what was it again, Block Nineteen? Were you called there today?" the Doctor asked the man standing behind him, never looking away from Beatrice Oshiro.

"No, never."

"But if you were to have a… a treatment, wouldn't you have been summoned for it?" the Doctor wondered aloud. Beatrice Oshiro frowned, turning back to look at the warden. "How many people were called to Block Nineteen for one of these treatments?" the Doctor went on.

"Four," Jaime replied.

"Four?" the Doctor repeated. "That's odd, because I could swear the warden mentioned there had been six so far, of which you would have been the seventh. Four treatments, so what happened to the other two?"

"They just disappeared," Norman piped in. "I remember them all," he stared far across the corridor, to the warden. Beatrice, still gripping Noah, turned toward her descendant.

"That wasn't part of our agreement, Nathaniel," she declared.

"They're lying," the warden shook his head.

"No, but I don't think they are. And what's worse is I should have noticed."

"Kill the boy now, or I will."

"Would you, Nathaniel? Would you kill him? Your hands are clean in this. If I had not volunteered, what would you have done? Found someone else to get blood on their hands, while you stand here, protected. I killed for you, because I believed in you. But you know something, you've changed. It's as though I'm finally seeing you. You claim this is about justice. What I think though, I think this is about a vendetta. You used me. That's not how I work."

"Didn't seem to bother you before," the warden was unmoved.

"It bothered me every time!" she shouted. "It should bother you to take a life, always! And I've taken hundreds with six strokes of a knife. That's the difference between you and me, Nathaniel. You never had anything to lose in this. I try not to think about it too hard, but they stay with me, they always will. I'm not taking this one." There was silence. "Boy, I am going to let you go now. I won't harm you. Before I do, I want you to know, for your mother…"

"I know," Noah spoke, the anger in his eyes now pointed squarely at the warden facing them. The knife was pulled back, returned to its sheath. "Thank you," he told her; he had never imagined himself saying as much to her.

"Beatrice, I'm warning you," the warden was livid.

"It's done, Nathaniel. You're done. At this point, I'd be better placed to look after Orcus than you are."

"Enough!" the warden's voice was growing shrill, sensing his authority slithering away. "If you can't finish your job, then I will, it'll be my pleasure," he took aim and fired the pulse.

It had all happened too fast for any of them to understand what had happened before it was done. The group in the back cried out before they could process how Beatrice, still gripping the boy in front of herself, had turned her back on to the warden. She had absorbed the pulse, the pair of them falling to the ground together before rolling apart.

Noah was stunned, but he was unharmed, and neither Beth nor Jaime was affected.

Beatrice had barely a few breaths left in her, and they were coming short and shorter.

Beatrice Oshiro, many-great grandmother to Nathaniel Nash, would be dead in a minute or two. The warden saw this, and he screamed.

TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)


	39. The Eye of the Storm

**"The Generational Purge"**

**39. The Eye of the Storm**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Noah knelt by her side, took her hand. Jaime dashed ahead, past them all, to the warden. He was in so much shock that he never resisted when the man he'd sought to purge took the weapon out of his hand. The Doctor and the others would come toward the fallen assassin, and he would crouch across from where Noah sat.

"Take her to the infirmary, now!" the warden begged, in effect, for his personal existence.

"No," Beatrice's voice was all but gone, but the word rang clear. "Let me go, it's as it should be."

"Your children will never exist," the Doctor had to remind her.

"I know," she pressed what little strength she had left. "The sacrifice must be made, if it means he will never do what he's done. It may undo what I've done, because of him, and if that's so, then I'll die happy." She coughed, wheezed; she didn't have much left in her. "Let them serve their time, as they should." One more breath, another… a last breath…

X

_London, England – December 31__st__ 2099_

"Two minutes left," Tasha stood behind her, and Victoria Coates startled, nearly spilling her drink. "Go on, girl, before someone else steals your midnight kiss."

"I'd rather have you than Colin Bailey," she smirked.

"Already got a girl. Go and get him, Vicky."

X

_London, England – July 18__th__ 2067_

Matthew Coates stood by the hospital window, his newborn daughter snug in his arms as the sun rose. She yawned, her little fingers stretched, and he felt as though she'd gripped his heart.

"There's a good girl, Vicky. Do you see that? Your first morning," he turned about, letting just enough sun bathe her, still holding his hand to shade her eyes. He could never imagine what his life was before she was in his arms.

X

_London, England – August 28__th__ 2043_

"Claire, I…" he started, staring into his cup for a moment.

"Yeah?" the young waitress looked back to Declan Coates with a smile. He tried to speak, then felt his courage retreat once again. "You alright?"

"Fine, I…" he stumbled along.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you, I've got an extra ticket for this thing, I… I was thinking it might interest you, I know you've mentioned you liked… Hold on," she went to get something from her bag and he watched her go, transfixed. "Here…"

"They were sold out," he blinked.

"Yes, well… How about it then?" she smiled. It would only be the first of so many times she took him by surprise.

"Yes."

X

_London, England – September 16__th__ 2006_

"Sorry, Mrs. Tyler!" Nikki Tomkins called back.

"Late again?"

"I know!" She could practically hear her mother's voice in her head, 'look where you're running, you're going to hurt someone someday.'

Her near collision with Jackie Tyler was all but forgotten as she got to work, passing Geoff Coates as she went. He worked in the shop across the street from her own. Sometimes, when business was slow, they would stand in their own shop windows, 'talking.' Some days she couldn't think of anything better than the way he made her laugh.

X

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Jaya Misra, Deck Vicario, and Ingrid Allaway had returned to their cell block, having nothing better to do until the Doctor's 'hour' was over than to look in on their fellow prisoners, the ones they had knocked out in their cells when the guards had been released of their helmets. Even as they were approaching, they knew something wasn't right. They should still have been out cold, but they could hear voices. When they arrived, they found some cells previously empty were occupied once more.

"Hey! What happened?" Jonathan Bailey called from his cell. "Let me out!" The trio looked to one another, stunned.

"Guess he wasn't kidding around that Doctor," Ingrid smirked.

"Where am I?" They turned around. Six prisoners had been purged by Nathaniel Nash. Some had been shadowed by guards who, by their position as ancestor or descendant, had been taken along with them. Now they had returned as well.

"You'll be alright," Jaya promised the confused man. "You can go home soon."

X

Beatrice Oshiro had died. Everyone had turned to look at Nathaniel Nash, wondering with equal parts dread and curiosity what would happen when someone was removed from existence.

Only nothing happened. He didn't disappear, or break apart, or die at all. He was just as surprised as they all were.

"How's he still here?" Rose looked to the Doctor, figuring he'd know.

"Consequence of everything he's done, I suppose. Can't expect to put your hands where they don't belong and get them back clean."

"What does that mean?" the warden asked; he didn't look nearly as high and mighty now.

"It means you're stuck here, Nathaniel. This is the only place left in all of time and space where you still exist. If you leave here, you're dust."

"Like a ghost?" Noah put in.

"You could say. Only, he's living," the Doctor pointed out. "And if he wants to stay that way, then some things will need to change, won't they? You have a chance to make Orcus better. You don't have a choice, if you want to live. Looks like that definition of yours is going to need an adjustment, Warden. No more treatments, no more helmets. The guards will be returned to their own lives, replaced with proper ones. And those who don't belong here," he looked to Norman Larsen, "They get to walk out that door, with what belongs to them. Oh, speaking of which…" he reached in the pocket inside his jacket, pulling out the device and presenting it to Norman.

"Hey, that looks like that thing you had," Noah noticed, turning back to Jack.

"Good eye," the Doctor complimented him. "Only I have a newer model," he threw a knowing look to the man, who took back his device, now knowing his line would continue after all.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)


	40. The Doctor's Road Map

**"The Generational Purge"**

**40. The Doctor's Road Map**

_February 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Today would be her last day in her present teaching assignment at McKinley. After this, she would retreat back to her small apartment once again, letting days turn into weeks until one day, she didn't know when, she would be thrown back into that world, ready to take on… something… whatever it was… She couldn't ask herself what, because she knew the answer anyway: she had no idea.

If anything, her time away from the school would give her the chance to heal. Her ankle was still giving her enough trouble that she couldn't toss aside her crutch, no matter how much she wanted to, and she would be more than happy to stay off her feet for a while.

The most surprising thing to her was still how much she already knew she would miss being here, how much she would miss those kids she was getting to know. She was well aware of the problems that existed when it came to her being in this school, but the Doctor had trusted her to take this on, and she had to believe there were reasons for it, that she could be trusted not to mess it up.

On her way out, she made it a point to stop by the football coach's office, to thank her for all her help. She said it was nothing, but Gemma assured her it was more than that. She made her way out of those halls, catching the eyes of her personal spy detail. She pretended she didn't see them looking. They'd have some weeks to forget about her, she hoped. Some days she half expected a knock at her door, finding the pair of them standing outside like a couple investigators.

She was getting better, filling the role of Ginny Harrison the substitute teacher, but she was relieved to walk into the building she'd been calling home, even if they didn't call her by her real name either.

She ambled up her hallway, pulling out her keys and opening the door. When she did, she nearly stepped on an envelope, which had been slipped under her door. She felt a chill. She knew those envelopes; she'd gotten one with each of her book deliveries. She was getting better at crouching and retrieving, but still she waited until she'd closed her door again before bending to pick up the envelope. There was a note inside, with that same steady handwriting.

It would tell her to go to the bank. There was a key inside the envelope, which would match another, in the possession of the bank, and those two keys would open a safe deposit box. There was another envelope inside that box, and she had to get it, to safeguard it just as well as 'those other things,' which she knew to mean the vortex manipulator and the anti sonic, among others.

"Now?" she groaned to herself, exhausted.

Almost in response, there'd been another message on the back of the note. _Yes, now._

So off she had gone, with her key, to hail a cab and make her way to the bank. There, a nice old woman had greeted her with a smile. The box, which had apparently been opened by another G. Harrison, several years ago, also included her name and allowed her to retrieve the contents of the box, for which she had the key.

"Is that your mother or your father, dear?" the woman had asked with that same kindly smile.

"Both, actually. Gregory and Gladys," she replied without having to think too far.

"Oh, that's nice," the woman nodded.

"Yes," Gemma went along with it, to make things easier.

Down the stairs they had gone, and in the vault they found the box with the number matching Gemma's key. Placing her own key in one of the holes, the woman from the bank invited her to do the same. The box was long and thin; it couldn't contain very much. The woman carried the box on to a table.

"I'll be right over there, dear," she pointed before moving along.

"Thank you," Gemma called after her, waiting until she was gone before opening the box.

As promised, what she found inside was a single envelope. It was bigger than the one which had been slipped under her door though. She would wait until she was home before she opened it.

The box was returned into its slot, the key was returned to her, and she was escorted out of the vault. She left the bank, got another cab, and returned to her apartment. She stopped to get pizza on the way, which the cab driver was kind enough to carry up for her. She thanked him by offering him a slice.

Back inside her apartment, for good this time, she sat on her bed, pulling her small table nearer. The pizza box was on the bed by her side, while the Doctor's envelope was placed on the table. After having two slices and wiping her hands, she finally opened it. Inside, she found a notebook. It was almost exactly the size of a DVD box, and for a moment she'd believed that was what she would find inside. She flipped the cover open, and as she flipped through the pages for a moment, she found nearly all the pages had been filled with the Doctor's handwriting. On the inside of the cover, she found a message.

_You may want to read this for a change, while you recover._

Gemma felt like she'd been half asleep for the past two months. She was awake now.

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)


	41. And To Everyone Their Place

**"The Generational Purge"**

**41. And To Everyone Their Place**

_Orcus Penitentiary – in the year 3086_

Jaya Misra, Deck Vickario, the Allaway twins Ingrid and Sara, Percy Hackett and Nico Reyes had already been returned to their cells. There would be time enough, in the days to come, to tend to those six who had been brought back to existence and explain what they had been through. Whether they would believe it or not was still left to be seen; maybe it was better off if they didn't believe it.

Slowly, the guards were to be returned to their own times. For many of them, the request for them not to talk about their time in the prison would not be a problem; they would try and forget it as fast as they could. As frightened as they had been in the beginning, now that it was over, they were finding the few benefits of being where they were.

Harinder Singh looked up to the woman in her cell, the one he now knew would be his daughter. Maybe he could keep her from taking this path, whatever it was, that had led her here. Felix Larsen had known there was a time in his father's past, when Felix himself had been very young, that he wouldn't talk about. He had a feeling that, once he came home, they'd finally be able to have a talk his father had been waiting to have for his whole life. Hari, Felix, and Norman had volunteered to stay behind, keep an eye on things until new guards could be brought in. And there was Beth.

Both she and Noah knew they couldn't talk about anything specific, anything that had to do with her life, but they didn't have to talk about each other: they could just talk. Sitting side by side, it had taken a minute or two, but then Noah started telling her about what had happened throughout the day. As it turned out, she'd felt that same queasy feeling as he had, when Beatrice had gone after his mother. She'd thought for sure something had happened to him, but then she'd recovered.

In return, she had told him about chasing after an intruder who had disappeared as mysteriously as she had appeared. "We almost got her. She fell, I think she twisted her ankle. She got up and sort of dragged her foot. But then she went into a room, locked herself in, and then…" she gestured what he guessed was 'disappeared.'

"That is not even the strangest thing I've seen today," Noah shook his head, and Beth laughed. There was something familiar about her smile, but he couldn't place it.

"Noah!" Jack called from across the yard, pointing to the TARDIS.

"I have to go now, but I'll see you… in a bunch of years or something," he got up.

"Right," Beth bowed her head, standing to watch him run off.

Jack shook Jaime's hand, clapping him on the shoulder. Who knew how long it would be before they saw each other again? "You get out of here now," Jack told him.

"Count on it," Jaime promised. "Thank you. For all of us."

"You owe a lot to that kid, too," Jack nodded to Noah as he came up to them. "First time I saw him I could have sworn he was you."

"Hey, genetics, you know?" Jaime indicated his face with a grin. After their farewells to the people of Orcus, the Doctor, Rose, Jack, and Noah boarded the TARDIS.

X

_Inside the TARDIS_

They still had to see about collecting the six who'd been left at the hospital, to get them home, but first they had one boy to get back to Ohio. "So no one's going to come after me anymore, right?" Noah asked Jack. He'd gotten to spend some time with the Doctor and Rose since he'd been brought in to Orcus, but it all went back to Jack; he'd gotten to know him most of all.

"It's over," Jack assured him. "What are you going to do when you get back?"

"Go and see my mom, ask if it's too late to join her on the museum tour," he shrugged.

"Came around to it?" Jack asked.

"No," Noah laughed. "But… I don't know, it'll make her happy and I…"

"Got it," Jack felt pride for the boy. "Now listen. When you get there, you have to promise me one thing."

"Don't tell anyone," Noah guessed. "Relax, it's not like anyone would believe me anyway."

"I mean it, Noah."

"I won't tell, alright?" he frowned, then after a moment, "I'm here now though, so I can still talk about it."

"You can," Jack agreed.

"A lot of it was messed up and stressful, but it wasn't all bad. I liked going around in the ship."

"Who wouldn't?" the Doctor slipped in.

"Plus I got to see the future, a lot of futures, and some of the past, too. How many kids at my school can say that? And I know, don't tell," he anticipated the reminder. When the TARDIS landed, Noah stood back up. "I'm not big on goodbyes, so…" he offered his hand, which Jack gladly shook.

"Stay out of trouble."

"Yeah, you too," Noah told him, moving on to the Doctor and shaking his hand, too. "Cool ship, dude."

"Thank you," the Doctor wasn't sure how else to respond. When Noah moved on to Rose, he almost looked to be aiming for a hug, but she offered him her hand.

"Alright then," Noah took it in stride, shaking her hand and giving her a discreet wink. She made herself smile, despite how awkward it felt, coming from the fifteen-year-old. They watched him run out of the ship, back to the museum and up the steps through the doors. Jack closed the TARDIS door, turning back to find the Doctor and Rose, minding the console, though they had that look about them like they'd been watching.

"What?"

"You alright?" Rose asked him.

"Hey, it could have been worse."

"But you're going to miss him," she smiled.

"Sure, why wouldn't I?" Jack shrugged.

"I don't think he likes goodbyes any more than he did," the Doctor told Rose. "Right then, onward?" Jack took a moment, then nodded.

"Off we go."

TO BE CONCLUDED (TUESDAY)


	42. Game Changers

_A/N: Please stay tuned for a note on the next story in this series, starting this Friday! :D_

* * *

**"The Generational Purge"**

**42. Game Changers**

_One month ago – January 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

"So I went back into the museum, and I found my mom and my sister. When she saw me, she looked like she was gonna yell at me, but then I said I was sorry and I wanted to see the museum with them. She looked so surprised and happy and after she took us to get ice cream. That was good, I mean to her she'd left me on the bench like fifteen minutes before or something, but I'd been running around all day, I was tired. The museum did not help," he shook his head.

"And you never saw any of them again?" Artie asked.

"Never," Puck confirmed. "There were a couple of times, I swear I saw Jack for a second, like out the corner of my eye or something, but then when I turned there was no one."

"Yeah, I get that."

"The thing is… When Quinn told me she was pregnant, I was just… I had to wonder, if that was her, the woman I met at Orcus, if that was already happening now. I knew Quinn wasn't going to get rid of the baby, so I told myself, whether or not this was her, I was going to make sure that she was born healthy and everything. I didn't know what was going to happen, if Quinn was going to keep her or give her up. Then she was born, and I saw her and… I knew that was her, I knew that was Beth. Then Shelby came along, and… that was her mom, I felt it. There were a couple of times I sort of wanted things to be different, to maybe get her back, but… She was where she had to be. And I knew, because of what I'd seen at the prison, I knew that Beth would know who I was, in one way or another, so… I can be alright with that."

He could still see her, the adult Beth, when he closed his eyes. She had Quinn's smile.

"That whole thing, it really made me understand how much family really means to me, you know? It was hard, because of my dad leaving, but I wanted to be there for my mom and my sister, more than I'd done. I know I haven't been the perfect guy, perfect son, or brother, not all the time, but I try and make it count. Not just for them, but here, with you guys, Glee Club… We're family, too," he admitted, still part of him being that tough kid who would have followed this admission with 'if you tell anyone I said that, I'll kill you.' But as they were in the middle of mutual confessions, sharing secrets, he tried not to think that way too much.

"That's still…" Artie shook his head in amazement. "Thank you for telling me all of that." He paused, then, "I wonder what happened to them."

"Who?"

"That girl who was travelling with him, Rose. And that guy who helped you, Jack. I mean, when I met the Doctor, they weren't there, it was just Gemma and…" he shrugged.

"Oh. I don't know. Maybe they just stopped and went back to their lives. I wouldn't have minded getting to see other places, or aliens. Like real little weird looking ones, you know? But even if I liked it, I really wanted to get back home, too. They probably needed some home time, too. I'm not even sure what time they were from, they could have been from anywhere."

"With Gemma, I always got the feeling she wasn't from the same time I was," Artie revealed. "I can't explain what it was. She didn't even say too many weird things, although sometimes she did."

"Well come on then, it's your turn."

"Right, about that…" Artie started, bowing his head.

"Hey, now, come on. You can't back down now. I told you mine, so you have to tell me yours, that was our deal."

"No, I know that, it's just…"

"Are you embarrassed or something?"

"No…"

"Are you scared mine is going to be better than yours, because I can believe that."

"No," Artie frowned. "Look, it's just…"

"It's just what?" Puck asked.

"I know that your story is true, that I don't doubt," he started off, just so it would be clear. "I mean there's no way it wouldn't be, not with some of the details you told me."

"I'm sensing a but," Puck stood.

"There's just something about the whole thing that sort of… confuses me."

"Confuses you how?"

"It confuses me because of this one detail, and it's kind of a big one, like a deal breaker, you know?"

"How can you say that you believe me, and at the same time there's a deal breaker? Isn't the point of a deal breaker that the deal is broken?"

"It is, but… Wow, I really don't know how to say this," Artie placed his hands on his knees.

"It's easy, you just open up your mouth and make words, come on," Puck incited.

"It's just… the Doctor that I met, I'm pretty sure… Actually, I'm completely certain… It wasn't the same one that you met."

"Oh… Well… Maybe it's like a shared title?" Puck sat back down.

"I don't think so," Artie shook his head.

"Then how do you know that it's not the same person, I mean I didn't even describe him that well… or at all," Puck pointed out.

"Well, you just did. You said 'he.' The Doctor I met, it was a she." Puck stared at him like he'd just leapt out of his wheelchair and done an Irish jig.

"Say that again?"

"My Doctor was a woman."

THE END

_A/N: First, check out the next story "Guardian of the Array" starting Friday October 11._  
_Second, note that I've had this entire series planned for over a year, thus the next Doctor hadn't been cast yet._


End file.
